


Mother of Conspiracies

by Ominae



Category: Grand Theft Auto V, James Bond (Craig movies), Mission: Impossible (Movies), Splinter Cell (Video Games), The Veteran (2011), 残響のテロル | Zankyou no Terror | Terror in Resonance
Genre: Black Operations, Conspiracy, Espionage, Multiple Crossovers, Original Male Character(s) - Freeform
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-08-06
Updated: 2018-05-21
Packaged: 2018-12-11 12:06:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 3
Words: 28,227
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11714082
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ominae/pseuds/Ominae
Summary: Stopping a false flag op in Britain planned by a rogue government official was the starting point of a major worldwide operation that would lead to an international conspiracy. AU of most series/franchises, starts in the middle of the The Veteran (2011) movie.





	1. The Origin

Mother of Conspiracies

Rating: T

NOTE:

All characters/events are under the copyright of their respective holders/distributors. All other characters are under my jurisdiction.

* * *

Summary:

Stopping a false flag op in Britain planned by a rogue government official was the starting point of a major worldwide operation that would lead to an international conspiracy. AU of most of series/franchises, starts in the middle of the The Veteran (2011) movie.

* * *

Two teenagers of East Asian origin were loitering along a stretch of road somewhere in Walworth with nothing but townhouses and parked vehicles next to the sidewalk in the early afternoon. Both wore jeans and rubber shoes, although they only differ in their shirt/jackets. The black-haired teen with glasses wore a simple plain white shirt with a black windbreaker on, hood worn over his head. The brown-haired teen had a gray pullover hoodie that had the words I LOVE LONDON on it.

["Hey Nine."] The brown-haired teen said in Japanese when he leaned next to a 1997 Solid White Proton Mpi sedan parked next to the sidewalk.

["What is it, Twelve?"] The black-haired teen replied in the same language as he peered through a small black monocular to check the street for anything or anyone suspicious.

["Our _friend_ reported in with the bugs that we planted at Home Secretary Gerry Langdon's office, home and car. Turns out we got some juicy information on him and his links to the Rising Peace Academy."]

["Any specifics?"]

["Turns out that Secretary Langdon's one of the many foreign backers of the Rising Peace Academy. Not sure on the extent, but he's one of the few guys in the UK who helped the RPA work with Savant specialists back in the day."]

["Looks like we hit the jackpot then."]

["There's even more."]

Nine turned his head to face Twelve, who had a wicked grin on his face.

["Turns out that he's got the services of an ex-Para in the British Army on surveillance to ensure false flag attacks go through. He did say that he's the key to make Langdon's faction go down the toilet."]

["Well..."] Nine spotted someone who just appeared on the road after he crossed through the chain link fence. ["Hey. Do you have a photo of the guy?"]

["Yeah."] Twelve got a colored photo of a man in his early 30s from his wallet. ["Here's a head shot of him."]

Nine took a quick look at the man's face. Caucasian man with brown hair in a crew cut with a green shirt. ["That's our man. Robert Miller."]

He gave the photo back to Twelve and scoped the bearded man who was seen just standing near the sidewalk just a few meters from him. _What the hell is he doing?_

Nine looked at the monocular again and studied the man's face. _Remove the beard and all and that's Miller. But what's he gotten himself to?_

["We better move..."] Twelve pointed to the speeding blue 2014 Volkswagen Transporter T5 panel van, approaching the standing man.

["No doubt that's Miller. Run for it."] Nine told Twelve when he made a running start first before Twelve would follow. It was only a miracle that they stood a few meters from the spot where the van appeared, so it was a short run.

The duo ran towards the van as two men jumped out after the sliding door was opened to grab the bearded man from the back. They wore different types of jacket, but appear to have jeans and black tactical boots.

Twelve was the first to make a move, taking out a Strider SMF NSN folding knife from the pocket of his jeans. Ensuring a tight and firm grip on the folding knife's frame with his right hand, the 4" blade popped out after he quickly used his thumb to depress the thumb stud.

"Shit! We got company!" One of the suspicious men who tried to accost the bearded man from the back brought his right hand into his black jacket and grab the pistol from the shoulder holster.

"Eiyah!" Twelve stabbed the short red-haired man in the neck, followed by several stabs to the chest.

"Gurh..." The armed man wasn't able to put up a fight since he received a serious stab wound at the neck. He began to choke on his own blood.

Nine reached for the other man, who had a brown bomber jacket and messy brown hair. The teen used his left hand went for the knife sheath strapped on the rear of his pants, which was concealed by the windbreaker worn over it.

"Fuc..." The brown-haired man had barely taken his pistol from his IWB holster when Nine drew out his Extrema Ratio Glauca B1 folding knife, the blade already extended. In one quick motion, he went for the man's throat as well.

The move quick short work of him as clutched his slashed throat, being shocked that someone like Nine could easily get the drop on him.

The bearded man went for the dropped pistol, which was a SIG Sauer P226R, and took aim at the van's driver. He fired three shots through the front passenger door window, killing him after he got shot in the left temple, making him slump to his right thanks to the seat belt he wore. The other two shots simply went for his body.

"Bloody hell..." The bearded man sighed and checked the P226R's magazine and saw that he's fired three shots. He then saw Nine and Twelve check the bodies of the dead men for anything of value. They only got identification and money taken from the wallets of the dead men, confirming them to be officially working under the Joint Intelligence Service. The most significant person IDed by the duo is Chris Turner, who was formerly based from MI-5, according to the bio data the duo covertly obtained.

["You're good, Twelve?"] Nine grabbed the dead man's handkerchief and used it to clean the blood off from his folding knife before he handed it to Twelve.

Twelve nodded when he got the handkerchief.

"All right you two!" The bearded man slowly raised his pistol at the two. "Just who are you and what the bloody hell is going on? How are you related to these guys?"

"Easy, Robert Miller." Nine calmly replied after his knife was placed back in the sheath. He raised his hands up to prove that he's not a hostile.

Twelve kept his grip on his folding knife when Nine glanced at him from over his left shoulder and shook his head, warning him not to do anything stupid.

"How do you know my name?" Robert was more suspicious of Nine knowing his name, still having the pistol trained on his head.

"I'm not here to hurt you." Nine explained his position while keeping his hands up. "In fact, my friends and I are here to help you out of your current predicament."

"Friends?" Robert raised an eyebrow.

"Let's just say that we have a mutual interest to gain by going after Home Secretary Langdon's faction, which you partially took care of by going after the big fish himself when we're suppose to go after him."

"You mean there's a bigger conspiracy than his faction trying to use false flags operations based on the attacks in mainland Europe by ISIL?" Robert questioned Nine, but this time with his sidearm lowered since he realized that Nine and Twelve aren't hostile.

"Yes. It seems that they want to make 2016 go down in history with a bang. Come with me. We'll fill in the rest of the details." Twelve checked the van interior and secured another P226R from Turner's shoulder holster and an Apple Iphone 7 smartphone.

* * *

_"Besides, we got friends out there who's taking care of someone you know."_

Another blue 2014 Volkswagen Transporter T5 panel van was seen parked somewhere inside an abandoned warehouse somewhere in Rodmill Lane around Brixton Hill. Three men were inside, all armed with P226R pistols holstered in shoulder/IWB holsters and wore various clothes and footwear.

"Any word from Turner guys?" One of the armed men standing watch near the warehouse's metal gates looked outside for anything suspicious. He wore a bomber jacket, brown pants and sneakers. He had shot brown hair.

"None at all. Said that he'd call once he's able to get Miller into custody." The second man replied, who had a worn brown leather jacket, green cargo pants and black combat boots. His blond hair was in a buzz cut.

"Wonder what's taking him so long? It's not like that one ex-para can take on a crew..."

The two suddenly heard a loud noise coming from outside.

Like someone threw something hard at the gates.

"Who the hell is doing that?"

"I dunno. Better have that checked."

The brown-haired man was the first person to immediately draw out his sidearm and peeked from the corner of the glass window to check and see if anyone was throwing something.

This earned the man a shot to the forehead. The sound of a bullet piercing the window made the second man rattled as he ducked for cover behind a stack of crates. The window was completely smashed up when a mix of smoke and stun grenades were hurled inside.

"Oy! What's going on?!"

Before the van's driver could get out, the grenades detonated after they were hurled inside. The warehouse was engulfed by bright flashing lights and gray smoke. This distraction allowed a couple of persons to climb through the broken window.

The intruders were dressed in Gun Metal Grey Rothco Special Ops Tactical Soft Shell jackets, Foliage Green Emerson Gen 2 Tactical pants, black tac gloves, pistol leg holsters and boots. Their faces were concealed with black facemasks to cover their mouths and noses. Only one of them wore a black Ford Police Interceptor baseball cap.

The person wearing the ballcap has a Black ANA M2 Plate Carrier vest worn over his chest while the other one in the facemask wore a Black Flyye Industries LT6094 plate carrier vest, outfitted with the appropriate pouches for magazines, grenades, radios, utilities, drop pouches and smartphones.

They only differed in the small arms that they had, slung on their right shoulders. Brass catchers were installed to ensure no used ammo brass is left behind.

The person in the ballcap was armed with a Desert Design & Development D3-45SD pistol-type carbine in a black finish, outfitted with quad-rails, a Magpul MOE buttstock and a vertical foregrip with attached taclight with an EOTech Holographic Hybrid Gen. III holographic sight is attached on the upper receiver.

The other person was armed with a LWRC International IC-A5 assault rifle with a 10" barrel in a black finish. It's outfitted with an Aimpoint CompM4S red dot scope and a vertical foregrip with attached taclight.

"We got company!" The second man tried to aim and fire, but the smoke and the light messed up his vision (in the sense that he can't see well) that his shots didn't hit anyone, except the wall near the gate. He stumbled away from the crates in an effort to get a better shot.

"What a waste of ammo..." The cap-wearing person sighed before he wasted the blinded man by firing the D3-45SD carbine at him at three round burst mode. "Mukuro, go check on the van! The VIP may be there."

"Understood, Dagger." Mukuro Ikusaba moved in towards the van, her IC-A5 assault rifle shouldered while on the move. An ordinary person couldn't tell that she was a woman because the plate carrier covered her chest and her hair was cut very short that she can mistaken for a guy.

The driver came out when the noise subsided, his P226R aimed at Mukuro's masked face. She noted that he had a gray hoodie pull through jacket, jeans and hiking shoes.

"Drop it!" Mukuro shouldered the IC-A5 assault rifle and aimed it at the hooded man, the CompM4S red dot scope focused on his unprotected chest. "Drop it now!"

"Piss off, you wench...!" The man decided that he didn't have anything to lose by shooting her instead off complying.

"You snooze..." Mukuro fired her weapon at the armed man in semi-auto mode before he can completely pull the trigger. He went down, his back slamming against the van's sliding door before his corpse crumpled onto the ground. "you loose."

"Secure the van! I'll keep watch!" Dagger began to search the bodies for anything of value.

"Got it!" Mukuro made sure the sling of her weapon was secured before she opened the panel van's sliding door. Inside was a woman who was tied up, her arms behind her back, with plasticuffs. Her head was also covered with a black hood. Otherwise, she was dressed in a white shirt with a blue windbreaker, jeans and brown loafers.

 _Is this her?_ Mukuro went for a pouch in her vest, taking a colored photo of a slightly brown-skinned woman with long black hair, most likely taken from a surveillance photo somewhere in London. _Only one way to find out._

Mukuro got inside the van and gently moved the tied up woman so that she can see her wrists. The masked woman kept the photo back in her pouch and drew out a Glock 81 Survival Knife with a black handle from the sheath strapped on her pants. "If you can hear me, I need you to hold still. I'll be cutting the restraints."

The Glock-made knife had the blade's sharp saw teeth cut through the plasticuffs. Mukuro took them off before she gripped the hood and removed it from her head.

"How is she?" Dagger checked the IDs of the dead men and secured them alongside whatever cash they have before their pistols were dismantled by removing the slides and magazines. _Damn. These guys are from the newly founded JIS._

"Shaken, but she's okay!" Mukoro replied as she spoke to the woman. "Are you Alayna Wallace?"

The black-haired woman nodded.

"Okay. My partner and I are here to get you out of here. Can you stand?" Mukuro extended her right hand to her.

"I think so. They kept me seated for a day now after I tried to leave London." Alayna slowly tried to stand up, her legs almost giving out due to being forced to sit down by squatting before she was brought to Rodmill Lane.

"Don't rush it. Just take it slowly." Mukuro helped the woman get out of the van, taking to consideration that she was almost physically and mentally drained.

"Hey. I was able to get everything we needed." Dagger had just finished collecting the JIS IDs when he approached Mukuro. "Looks like these guys are from the JIS. No mistake, according to their IDs."

"But what's their endgame?" Mukuro questioned her partner after she finished guiding Alayna out of the van.

"They..." Alayna tried to explain the situation. "They wish to take advantage of the terror incidents perpetrated by the Islamic State in Europe to create chaos in the UK and in Ireland in order to justify more counter-terrorism funding as the first step and make them the scapegoat."

"They? Is this part of some kind of master plan?"

"I heard Secretary Langdon talk to someone over the phone a few days ago..." Alayna was a bit worried when she explained. "Something about a major operation going on here in the UK and in Japan, from what I remember."

"Damn..." Dagger muttered. "Just like the intel we got after we arrived in Britain."

"Yeah. We'll need to move." Mukuro escorted Alayna out of the warehouse while Dagger led the way.

"By the way," Dagger turned his head over his right shoulder to face Mukuro. "nice shooting back there."

"It was nothing."

* * *

Robert, Nine and Twelve were inside a 2015 Universal Silver Nissan X-Trail SUV heading towards an unknown destination somewhere in London, currently driving on Lambeth Road. Nine was the one in charge of driving with Twelve in the front passenger seat. Robert opted to sit at the back, behind Twelve.

For the past hour or so, the two Japanese teens explained to Robert why they were in Japan and the story behind their presence in the UK.

"So let me get this straight..." Robert sighed after he leaned on his seat. "You two are Japanese orphans who were taken in by a NGO known as the Rising Peace Academy."

"Yeah, that's right." Twelve replied in agreement.

"And you guys were experimented on with other orphans taken in by this NGO in an attempt to recreate savant syndrome as part of this... _Athena Plan_ to revive Japanese nationalism after its defeat in World War II?"

"Yep... And also, Nine thinks it's a good idea to recruit you and help us take them down. Even with the big fires that wrecked this so-called _Settlement_ during your escape."

The ex-para sighed when he heard the rest of the details from the brown-haired teen. "Sounds a bit ludicrous if you ask me though. That's like saying the British National Party has a plan using the members of its youth wing _Resistance_ to make Britain great again by getting rid of the non-white populace."

"We'll take you to the one person who you wouldn't want to talk to after this fiasco." Nine calmly told Robert what they'll do next.

"You mean the Home Secretary himself?" Robert was a bit shocked at Nine's plans.

"You object to it?" Nine made a right turn at the circle and went for Lambeth Bridge.

"Not at all." Robert shook his head. "After all, it's about time I go and pay him a visit."

Twelve got his 2015 Samsung Galaxy J5 smartphone out and made a call. **"Yo, it's me. Got the VIP already. You got her out? Okay... that should be cool. Are you guys around Lambeth Bridge? We're about to take on the next target. Okay, that's cool. I'll see you guys soon."**

The X-Trail was seen heading towards Horseferry Road, making a left on Regency Street and going straight until a right turn was made at Esterbrooke Street with a left turn at Chapter Street.

Their destination was the Barratt London - Chapter Street apartment building.

"We should head to the basement parking of the apartment. If we're in time, the other guys should be able to get the drop on Langdon."

Twelve was given one the P226Rs seized from the slain JIS agents by Nine before they left Walworth by Nine. He pulled the slide slightly to check if it was still loaded.

* * *

Nine parked the X-Trail at the building's basement parking. They went for the second basement parking floor, where Langdon's 2015 Alpine White BMW 5 530d M Sport sedan was said to be located. The SUV was parked right next to a 2016 Firenze Red Metallic Range Rover Evoque SE SUV. When Robert and the two teens got out, they noted that Alayna was inside the Evoque, who almost fired her pistol until she saw Robert.

"Jesus..." Robert nearly freaked out that he almost drew out the P226 tucked inside the pants' waisband.

Nine waved to Dagger, who waved back and motioned them to come to his position.

"Let's go." Nine whispered to Robert. "Looks like we got him."

The trio made a run for it to see Dagger and Mukuro, who have Langdon at gunpoint. They could hear him trying to defuse the tensions between him and the other two.

"Are the weapons really necessary?" Langdon sighed after he pushed the nose bridge of his glasses up.

"Shut it, old man." Dagger glared at the man with his carbine leveled at his chest. "We're the ones asking the questions. Not you."

"Hello, Gerry." Robert glared at the Home Secretary as he walked fast towards him, raising the P226R at him with his right hand. The right index finger was placed on the trigger guard.

Gerry sighed again, scratching the back of his head in frustration. "What do you want?"

"I want to know why you put me up to this shit." Robert calmly replied, but the others nearby knew that the army vet was about to come close to pulling the pistol's trigger at any time.

Nine and Twelve raised their P226Rs at Gerry also with their hands.

Gerry didn't reply to his question, but instead gave off a calm, motive rant in a gentlemanly manner. "The organizing principle of any society, is for war. The basic authority of a modern state of rich people... resides in it's war powers. Today it's oil, tomorrow, water. It's what we like to call, the God business: Guns, Oil and Drugs."

"Damn yo..." Dagger muttered. "Looks like intelligence didn't leave any good notes on him being over his head."

Nine simply glared at him while he held his glasses at the left temple. "Basically the same principle like the Patriots, but reminds me a bit of the Templars."

Gerry nodded. "We have the same vision as those two groups, but I have a different motive for being involved."

"Really?" Mukuro raised an eyebrow. "And what's that?"

"Our goals for sustainability is in a hurdle. That's why we implement demand destruction. We continue to make money, as the world burns. But for this to work, the people have to remain ignorant of the problem, until it's too late. That's why we have triggers in place: A population in a permanent state of fear, does not ask questions. Our desire for war, becomes its' desire. A willing sacrifice. You see? Fear is just a vacation, fear is control, fear... is money."

"So you're saying you use terror attacks committed by various groups to justify more funding to law enforcement and intelligence agencies?"

"All part of the plan... But it's more than just that." Gerry said with a confident tone in his tone.

"Who are you working for?!" Robert shouted, putting the pistol's barrel at his chest.

The glasses-wearing man didn't falter from Robert's threats.

"Someone with a plan to usher in a new age."

To everyone's surprise, Gerry grabbed Robert's hands and forcefully pushed his right index finger to pull the pistol's trigger.

"Shit!" Robert tried to wrestle the pistol from Gerry's hand, but it was futile as the deed was already done with the rogue official being shot in the chest.

"You're not going out that easy!" Dagger secured the sling of his carbine before he went to crouch next to the wounded man, who collapsed onto the ground next to his sedan. He moved to his black pants and took a white handkerchief from the man's pocket, using it to apply pressure to the gunshot wound.

Nine and Twelve kept their pistols, tucking them in on the waistband of their pants.

Gerry chuckled as he coughed blood. "Since I'm a nice guy, I'll give you a hint to start with..."

"Are you talking about Tyrone? Tyrone Jones? Guy mentions that he's in bed with you and the JIS."

"Looks like you didn't waste time figuring that out..." Gerry replied with pain in his voice despite Dagger's attempt to slow down the bleeding.

Twelve and Mukuro crouched down, the former checked the man's pulse and Mukuro went to see if he was still talking.

"Seems like the gunshot wound's slowly killing him." Mukuro told Dagger.

"Looks like it. Dammit, we could've taken him in alive."

The ex-Fenrir mercenary saw Gerry's lips move. She could hear him, albeit a bit faint, whisper his last words.

"Long...live...Spectre."

"Spectre?" Mukuro said out loud when she heard the group's name.

"Spectre? As in the international criminal slash terrorist group?" Robert asked her, confused after he quickly secured his pistol.

"Yep." Dagger nodded.

"Interesting..." Nine said after he heard the name. "Considering the age of terror and surveillance on the populace after 9/11, this happens to be very curious if they're involved."

"We don't know if they're involved with the RPA in some capacity." Twelve spoke to Nine after he heard his thoughts.

"Found something." Mukuro examined Gerry's hands and found a ring on his left middle finger. She removed the object and examined it closely.

"What is it?" Dagger asked her.

"Here." Mukuro showed the ring to him. "There's a drawing of some sea animal in there."

"A sea animal?" Dagger raised an eyebrow until he was able to get a closer look at the item. "What the? An octopus..."

The ring had the insignia of a black octopus with its seven tentacles pointed downwards. The octopus has no eyes drawn on it.

"This proves that he's in league with them." Robert said after Dagger showed him the Spectre ring.

"You heard about them?" Mukuro asked him.

Robert nodded. "Rumors and stuff when ISAF forces back in Afghanistan got intelligence that Spectre and other known criminal and terrorist groups had investments in the opium fields."

"All right. We'll need to regroup for now. In the meantime, taking down Jones is the next step in our search for any possible conspirators working in conjunction with the RPA."

"Hopefully it can add more info to the ones we found aside from intel on links between Spectre and the RPA through the Dark Web."

Dagger and Mukuro directed Robert to regroup with Nine and Twelve. The former told Mukuro to take the Evoque back to their hideout while he would pilfer Gerry's keyfob and use it to gain access to his sedan. Before he got in, he gave the ring to Mukuro for safekeeping.

He was the last to leave the parking lot, leaving the man's corpse behind with the wallet taken to give the police the impression that he was killed by an armed robber looking for a quick score.

* * *

Somewhere inside the corridors of Heygate Estate's Ashenden apartment block in South London, adjacent to Waltworth Road, a Black British man was seen walking back and forth. The 32-year old man with a black hoodie, white cap, worn jeans and blue/gray sneakers was on the phone talking to someone about the situation at the housing estate.

 **"What the bloody hell are you talking about?!"** The man yelled on the person speaking on the other line.

**"Just calm down, Mr. Jones. I'm sure that my associates can square things away..."**

**"Square things away? I just tried to reach out to a contact from the Home Office and I was told that the Secretary himself was assassinated in his own apartment building! How do you explain that?!"**

**"Rest assured that your concerns are being taken care of as we speak..."**

**"I doubt that these meetings your bosses are having will take care of the problem."**

**"We have someone on the way to help you out. Just sit tight for now."**

Tyrone abruptly ended the call between him and the other person, angry and frustrated that their conversation seemed like it wasn't going anywhere, except with the assurances that they'll send someone to help him out.

"Can this bastard actually help me out?" Tyrone murmured after he kept his phone.

"Hey boss!"

Another Black African man, who was in his early 20s with a gray hoodie jacket, sneakers and faded jeans, showed up at the same corridor Tyrone is in.

"Yeah, what is it?"

"We got a call. Said that someone just arrived and they happen to be looking for you."

Tyrone sighed. _This must be the help they're talking about._

"All right. Let them know I'm coming."

"Got it, boss."

* * *

Robert was now in his own apartment, cleaning up parts of a Colt M4A1 carbine he acquired from a local gunrunner he did surveillance on weeks ago with the backing of the JIS. The P226R was placed on the table alongside the M4A1, being covered by some newspapers so that it wouldn't be dirty. The pistol would be checked and cleaned up next.

The man was surprised to hear from the others that they wish to stay in his apartment, at least to rest and regroup for the meantime before they head to Heygate Estate and take on their next target.

Not that he didn't object of course. After all, he had a bone to pick with the drug dealer over his indirect connection with Langdon, especially that he nearly got killed in a potential false flag op and blame it on Islamist sympathizers.

"So I'm assuming you lot want to join up with me on the raid on the housing estate?" Robert asked the group after he had just finished reassembling the M4A1.

"Yeah." Nine replied, who just nodded his head. "You lived in the estate before you joined up with the British Army as a paratrooper. We could use someone who's got experience in the area."

Robert was using a WD-40 lubricant spray can to clean up the slide and the springs. "Yeah. I'm only agreeing to come with you guys so that I can settle a score. Not to mention put down a potential threat towards Alayna."

"Let's start." Mukuro walked back inside the apartment, wearing her softshell jacket and tac pants without her combat gear and her facemask on. "I got the plans for Heygate Estate."

One could assume that Mukuro was in her 20s due to looking younger, but she was in fact in her late 20s.

"Nice." Dagger spoke to her. He was leaning on the wall, left shoulder and arm bracing it. His ballcap was worn in such a way that it would conceal most of his face. He didn't want to show his real face to Robert in case he either wouldn't agree on the raid on the estate alongside the rest of the group, be compromised by being arrested by law enforcement or get caught by Tyrone's gang.

"Shame that we can't get to our mutual friend in LA." Mukuro told Dagger as she unrolled the estate map on another table. "Said that he's busy helping some people there for some scores due to a bad call someone made a few months ago."

"But did you give him the stuff, just in case?" Dagger asked her.

"Yeah. Told me that he'd go over it in case he got some time."

"Well I hate to be in that guy's shoes." Dagger shook his head before he looked at the plans. "So what are our options?"

"Way I see it from taking a brief glance," Mukuro pointed to the roof and the various entrances and foot paths to the housing estate. "we got ourselves a few options."

"What are those options?" Twelve asked her when he took a look at the map.

"It looks like we can start from here and here." Nine pointed to the small roads that go near and around the estate and the foot paths from the streets. "We can take advantages of a pincer attack by storming the estate from the rear and side, as well as the entrances via pedestrian-only paths. Thing is we need to be mobile, quick and strike together in unison to catch Tyrone's goons by surprise."

Robert overheard the planning as he was about to assemble the P226R with the slide only missing when he looked at the map before he gave his advice. "Word of advice, guys. There's gonna be homeless people there, not to mention women and children who might be employed by Tyrone as either lookouts, couriers or extra guns in case things go bad."

"Guess this means we go non-lethal then." Dagger said, making the suggestion. "Let's stock up on tasers or stun grenades."

"Uh guys..." Twelve raised his left hand up. "Hope you're not forgetting about Ms. Wallace. I mean, if we're all going to raid the estate, who's going to keep an eye on her?"

"That happens to be a very good question, Twelve." Nine replied to his friend's concern.

Robert felt that everyone was looking at him ever since they saved him about being kidnapped by rogue JIS agents.

"One of my buddies got recruited to help the JIS with some stuff ever since he got an honorable discharge from the paras like me."

"Is he still under their leash?" Dagger raised the question.

"Yeah." Robert nodded. "Most likely. He tried to warn me that Langdon's faction in the JIS will try to hunt me down as part of their cleanup if their false flag op would go ahead."

"Then it seems that we'll need to take care of that loose end first." Twelve had a smirk on his face.

"Do we do it now?" Mukuro faced Dagger.

"Might as well. If anything, I doubt we'll hear anything from our pal in LA for a few hours." Dagger stretched his arms before he added. "Robert, you know where you buddy lives right now?"

"Not that I'm aware of, but there's a place where we always go to before and after we left the army..."

* * *

After Robert agreed to let the group go along with the raid on the estate, he offered a suggestion to draw out Danny Turner, his buddy in the paras and current _stooge_ to the JIS by sending a SMS message that the two of them need to meet again at a Korean restaurant called the CheeMC somewhere in Walworth.

The group would be divided into two teams. One of them would be on surveillance duties to make sure Robert and Danny are safe. The other would try to locate any potential JIS-manned vehicles and take them out before the meeting could be compromised.

The X-Trail, used by Nine and Twelve, has the honor of scoping out the restaurant and keeping an eye on the two men in case the JIS has some surprises in store. They would scope the place out with binoculars.

The Evoque, used by Mukuro and Dagger, is tasked with locating any JIS vehicles that would potentially bring Danny to the meeting place and capture Robert if and when there's a chance. If and when possible, they're also in charge of neutralizing the threat. They're wearing the same clothes during the rescue mission to save Alayna, but without their faces covered up. The two of them didn't bring anything except for suppressed pistols placed in their shoulder holsters, concealed by their jackets. They also wore radio earpieces on their ears.

Dagger still wore his cap, but a bystander who walked by him saw that he was in mid 20s, East Asian facial features with short black hair in a crewcut haircut.

 **"Alpha 1."** Dagger was on the radio, speaking via mike clipped on her jacket. She adjusted her earpiece on her right ear. **"How's the rendezvous point over?"**

 **"Just spotted the vehicle that dropped out Danny."** Nine replied to Dagger's inquiry. **"It's a gray Toyota RAV4. Looks about a 2014-15 model maybe."**

**"Got a plate?"**

**"Yeah. It's LU14 KBG. And they just turned to one of the side streets nearby."  
**

Dagger turned to the side to see Mukuro point out the RAV4 turning right pass them. **"Okay. We found the vehicle. So we're taking a closer look. Don't do anything until I say so. Got it?"**

**"Yeah, gotcha."**

Dagger motioned to Mukuro to head to the side street as they got out of the parked SUV.

"Do we jump on them?" Mukuro asked Dagger on a plan of action.

"No." Dagger replied. "Let's keep an eye on the vehicle. If we're right, the agents inside should try to bail out and charge towards CheeMC."

"Understood."

The two of them walked by the RAV4 when they saw that it was going to be parked next to the sidewalk since there was open space. They later ducked into an alley in order to remain hidden and conduct surveillance from there by pretending to be hanging around there.

* * *

Robert took his seat in one of the empty chairs since he saw Danny take the table nearest to the entrance so that he can keep an eye outside.

"Glad to see that you took my message seriously, Danny." Robert took his seat in front of Danny.

"I don't need to remind you that the JIS in monitoring this. Whatever you say to me can make them freak out and bag you."

"And I came prepared for that." Robert raised an eyebrow when he heard Danny's warning.

"Are..." Danny leaned forward and whispered to him. "Are you packing?"

Robert didn't say anything to answer Danny's question.

"Oh god." Danny sighed, placing his hands on his temples to show off his frustration. "You really are packing a weapon with you now."

"I need you your assistance for one last time, Danny..."

"I heard about what happened to Alayna from them, Robert. But I can't. They got their eyes and ears on me..."

"Don't worry, I got some help on that..."

* * *

Dagger and Mukuro spotted four Caucasian men with either blond or brown hair wearing various windbreakers, pants and shoes. They were all armed with Glock 17s drawn out from their shoulder holsters.

"Let's go." One of the armed JIS agents said to the others. "We bag Robert and we take Danny back to the nearest safehouse. That clear?"

The other three JIS agents nodded as they walked towards the restaurant.

Dagger unholstered his Armscor 1911A2-45 FS PS pistol equipped with a Ramlite Magnetic Laser Sight attached underneath the barrel from the shoulder holster. For Mukuro, she unholstered a Glock 21 from her shoulder holster, equipped with a railed SureFire X400 Ultra LED WeaponLight. Both pistols were also equipped with mounted suppressors due to nature of the operation.

"Hold it!" Dagger shouted after he and Mukuro raised their pistols and aimed them at the group.

"Shit! We're made!" The JIS agents had just raised their pistols when Dagger opened fire with his suppressed sidearm at the first two agents, two shots at their chests. Mukuro found her own targets and opened fire at them, two shots at their chests.

The event made a lot of people flee the scene, some taking cover behind parked cars or other places where bullets won't easily hit them.

**"Guys! Get in there now! We've been made, but we neutralized the threats. I repeat, we neutralized the threats. Get the package out of there."**

**"Got it."**

Dagger and Mukuro holstered their sidearms after the latter managed to collect the .45 ACP shell casings and placed them inside a plastic bag that happened to fly to her foot due to the slight gust of wind. Dagger gestured to Nine and Twelve to take Robert and Danny out of the area via X-Trial after he saw them take the ex-paratroopers out of the restaurant safely.

"We need to leave now." Mukuro picked up the plastic bag and dumped it inside the Evoque after she and Dagger got back inside, being the last to leave before the police could get to Walworth.

* * *

Tyrone walked towards a section of Deacon Way that led to the west side of the Ashenden apartment block, being watched by four of his boys armed with Russian-made AKS-47 assault rifles slung on their shoulders.

"Where's that damn motherfucker?" Tyrone groaned when he saw that no one was around to see him.

"Over there!" One of the AKS-47-armed men pointed to an incoming vehicle.

However, Tyrone not one, but two vehicles down the road coming towards his direction.

"Keep your cool, boys. But stay alert."

Tyrone noted that the vehicles coming over were a couple of 2016 Loire Blue Land Rover Range Rover SVR SUVs with British license plates. They parked on the side, the engines still running as a precaution.

Six armed men, a mix of Caucasian and African, emerged out the SUVs with dress suits and shoes. They appeared to be in good shape, giving off the appearance that they must have served in either the police or with the military. They also appear to be unarmed.

Later on, two men exited the first SVR. One was of African descent with a trimmed goatee in his early 30s with the other man was of Caucasian descent with some white hair strands on his blond hair with a neatly shaved chin. The former wore a gray dress suit, the latter wore a purple polo dress shirt, brown pants and loafers with shades worn to cover his eyes.

"Monsieur Jones, it's a pleasure to meet you." The African man introduced himself by shaking hands with him. "I'm Monsieur Moreau, an associate of Home Secretary Langdon on behalf of Spectre."

"Pleasure." Tyrone shook hands and returned the greeting.

"The man next to me is Colonel Jeremy Prentiss, formerly of the US Army and current head of the private security company Black Arrow."

The shades-wearing man stepped forward to shake hands with Tyrone.

"Pleased to meet you, Mr. Jones." Prentiss greeted Tyrone.

"Likewise, mate. Likewise."

"My apologies if there was any problem between you and my associate on the phone." Moreau explained to Tyrone about the call he received. "My superior is not pleased that his man at the Home Office was taken out before his plan was to be carried out. And it appears that whoever made him die will go after you for answers."

"And I suppose this is where this Yankee comes in, eh?" Tyrone pointed to Prentiss with his right index finger.

"I was told that this is such a short notice by Mr. Moreau, but my men can assist in training your..." Prentiss stared at the armed men standing near Tyrone's back. "boys so that they can effectively shoot at whoever happens to be coming after you. At least my men should be able to train them so that they can shoot better and stop acting like gangbangers."

Tyrone nodded, liking Prentiss' suggestion. Considering that he heard about BA and how they helped client states train their law enforcement/military forces handle coups and peacekeeping operations, there wasn't any reasons to turn him down.

"How long will the training start?" Tyrone asked the contractor.

"As long as you're willing to start," Prentiss said before he added. "My allies in Spectre will see to the fees."

The sun was now starting to set.

* * *

The group, Robert included, escorted Alayna to Heathrow Airport via Heathrow Express rail line after receiving assistance to help her get off British soil due to the threat of Langdon's faction, which was confirmed to be aligned with Spectre.

After some time to deliberate where to send her, Danny suggested to bring her to Singapore. When asked why, he mentioned that one of his buddies from the Paras is living in the country as a Strategic Studies Analyst with a think tank company and knows people from the Singaporean law enforcement and intelligence community to help her keep a low profile.

They agreed after Danny made contact with his friend and only after he agreed to help him out did the group consent to do it.

For now, it should give them time to weed out Tyrone's gang and pick up clues on whether Spectre and the RPA are linked in some way.

"Take care of her, Danny." Robert shook hands with Danny.

"Yeah, I will." Danny returned the handshake. "Sorry about what happened back there with the JIS. Should've gotten tougher balls like when were back in the Paras."

"Just... take care of her, Danny." Robert sighed before he patted his left shoulder. "I heard that Singapore's a nice place to unwind from the shit that's happening in London. Also includes the food."

Danny smiled at him. "Yeah. I'll keep that in mind."

Alayna thanked Robert and the others for saving her life by shaking their hands. "Thank you for what you guys did. I'll never forget it."

"Think nothing of it." Mukuro nodded in reply.

"Yeah. You didn't deserve to die." Dagger added, crossing his arms. "You got your whole life ahead of you."

"Take care of yourself." Nine said. "We'll make sure no one's going to harm you from the other side of the globe."

"Yep." Twelve grinned. "What Nine said, Ms. Wallace."

"We better go..." Danny said his goodbyes to the others. "The flight out of Heathrow should be starting by three hours. We can't afford to be late."

With that, Danny and Alayna got their luggage and walked towards the nearest elevator in order to go to the airport's departure terminal.

"Now what?" Twelve asked the others while they waited for the next available HE train.

Dagger felt his Iphone 6S smartphone vibrate, so he removed it from the belt clip and saw that it received an incoming SMS message coming from an unknown phone number, its area/country code indicating that it at least came from America.

"We regroup for now." Dagger said to the others while he looked at the smartphone. "Looks like we may have something."

* * *

Inside the deserted Crossways Church, located between New Kent Road and Deacon Way, plainclothes BA contractors were on hand to mentor Tyrone's men in properly firing their weapons, using the estate to their advantage by deploying anyone with good shooting skills to conduct suppressive fire. The contractors coached them on small arms drills by shooting at mock targets. All of them wore ear muffs to protect their ears from being deaf.

Prentiss was outside, speaking to Tyrone since they couldn't hold a decent conversation with the gunfire going around.

"Seems that your boys are learning, despite a few who happen to be hard in the head." Prentiss sighed after he told Tyrone the _good_ news.

"When you hone your tactics with rival gangs and the filth all the time, you don't get time to practice except to fire to keep their heads down."

"Well we have enough time to get your boys to correct their methods."

"All right. Hopefully it'll be worth it."

* * *

Inside an undisclosed apartment somewhere near Heygate Estate, the group gathered around a coffee table that had the map of the estate shown. They were busy brainstorming ways to storm the area and locate Tyrone within the premises.

The map showed that as of early 2016, some of the apartment blocks located south of Heygate Street were almost done being demolished, with the rest being temporarily halted due to the presence of Tyrone's gang using it as a base of operation for drug smuggling/peddling, not to mention that there were a few hardcore squatters who are being sheltered by him. The estate was suppose to be demolished by 2015, but only stopped halfway due to some gang wars that took place, most of them involving Tyrone's gang as they used the abandoned estate as a part of their turf.

Dagger's Iphone 6S was placed on the coffee table on top of the estate map with the speaker turned on since a phone call was being made.

 **"Go ahead Lester, you're on speakerphone."** Dagger spoke to Lester after he turned the smartphone's speaker on.

 **"Thanks."** The person mentioned before he coughed to clear his throat. **"Ah... Good evening everyone. For those who don't me, my name is Lester Crest and that's all you need to know."**

 **"Okay, Lester. Let's get down to business."** Dagger checked the time from his Kentex JGSDF wristwatch. **"Hope I didn't interrupt you or anything back in LA."**

 **"Nah, it's fine. Just had to take care of something for someone who I haven't seen in a while."** Lester brushed off his concerns. **"Anyway, I had some time to look at the Heygate Estate map you just e-mailed me an hour ago."**

**"How is it? Is it bad?"**

Lester was silent on the line before he replied. **"Let's see... Judging by what you got for me, it's still a nightmare even if the place has been halfway done being demolished."**

 **"What do you mean by that, Mr. Crest?"** Mukuro asked Lester when she heard his slight apprehension.

 **"Just call me Lester, I insist."** Lester addressed Mukuro when he chuckled for a bit before he explained why he seemed apprehensive. **"Even with Tyrone Jones' operation being centered throughout Deacon Way, it's still a nightmare in the sense he could place his men on the pedestrian footbridge if some of you are storming the place from the ground. Not to mention that his crew should be more familiar with the area more than the police. I expect traps or ambushes to be used in slowing your progress down as you search and clear the place. It's still troublesome that surveillance is needed to see which apartment block takes top priority."**

Dagger began to scribble on the estate map on the significant areas with Lester pointing them out from an earlier discussion.

**"But the good news is that if Tyrone wants to get away via vehicle, there's one path out via Deacon Way, so you guys can start with a roadblock and riddle his car should he show up."**

The path between Deacon Way and Heygate Street was drawn in a circle to indicate its location. The words POTENTIAL AMBUSH was written next to it.

**"As to what Dagger had discussed with me in the e-mail before I called, he pointed out to me that the abandoned estate has some footpaths leading to and from it. I would suggest that sending someone from that route can be very handy for a distraction to sneak in someone to take out the guards. Not to mention using it to get to the nearest footbridge to provide cover."**

New Kent Road and Rodney Place were circled and the words FOOTPATHS were written next to them so that the group would know that they can be accessed by pedestrians.

 **"If the intel we're going to get on Tyrone is correct,"** Dagger pointed to the center of Deacon Way. **"His gang'll have full control of this area. This means we need to go in fast and hard. If you guys got cars, then you need to get a blocking force at the intersections leading to the place."**

The intersecting roads (Walworth Road/Heygate Street, New Kent Road/Rodney Place and Heygate Street/Rodney Road) were marked with a X mark.

 **"I've made arrangements to have the estate under surveillance. They'll get back to me in an hour to see if they located the target and provide any more info about the estate."** Lester can be heard taking a drink. **"Hey Dagger, is there still a police presence there?"**

**"Not since 2015 when some of the gang wars started there. I was told by Robert here that he saw a kid harassing him with a gun there, so I'm thinking we may encounter kids or teens being used as gunmen for an ambush just in case shit goes down. Last I passed by, the chain link fences and gates are still there, so we may need to break in by picking the locks or bolt cutters. Anyway, let us know."**

**"I see, I see... I'll inform my guys. I almost forget, I assume you'll be packing LTL for this little gig?"**

LTL or less-than-lethal. Just what Dagger needed in a situation like this. **"We will. Don't want the death of a kid to be in my conscience, even if he or she is packing heat."**

**"I'm sure you can handle it. Oh... Give me a sec... I'll check if there's anything else was found."**

"I assume this Lester Crest knows about me?" Robert asked Dagger.

"Oh yeah. Asked me on what's your relationship with the estate and I just told him you used to live there. If there's any info that he can get, he'll do it."

"Maybe we should get more manpower on this." Twelve spoke to Dagger. "If I remember about what you told me and Nine about Lester, he can outsource anything you need, like some hired mercs."

"That's true." Dagger stretched his arms. "But in this case, he used to be with someone who did scores in the western part of the United States back in the day. So he's got experience in getting freelance criminals. I'm not too sure on his experience in the mercenary world though..."

Robert stared at the group and wondered if they can really pull this off. _Can we get in there, bag Tyrone and get outta there with our lives still intact? I think we'll need a lot more people to cover the ground._

 **"You got your laptop?"** Lester came back on the phone. **"I'll speak with all of you via camera."**

 **"On it."** Dagger motioned to Mukuro to get the Dell 15 5000 Inspiron laptop from the nearest side table. Mukuro got it and booted it up and waited before it was fully loaded. She then got the Skype program working.

"Here." Mukuro looked at the mobile number on Dagger's smartphone. She looked for it on the contact list and used the touchpad to click on the same number. A few seconds later, she move the laptop to make it face everyone as Lester's face was on the screen.

 **"All right. I see that everyone is here and accounted for."** Lester looked at everyone from his house in LA, his eyes lingering on Robert. **"And this is the ex-British paratrooper you told me about?"**

**"Yeah. Came in on such short notice, but we're joining in 'cause we got a mutual enemy."**

**"I guess that's a good thing. I got a new intel update that mentioned some people going there for the past day or so."**

**"What's this new intel you got?"**

Lester showed a printout of the faces of Moreau and Prentiss on the screen.

 **"I know the other guy. Colonel Jeremy Prentiss, ex-Special Forces officer with 1st Special Forces Group. He's the leader of Black Arrow."** Mukuro explained to the others who Prentiss is.

 **"Black Arrow huh?"** Dagger said when he heard the name. **"From the rumors we heard in the underworld, he's linked up with some group known as Megiddo and the company was purchased months ago by CEO Lucius Galliard."  
**

**"I remember hearing news that one of their facilities... A Price Airfield was heavily damaged. BA didn't say what happened to it."** Nine added his thoughts to the debriefing regarding the PMC.

**"Hmmm... Black Arrow helping out a local drug dealer with links to a rogue British government official with ties to Spectre. Damn, reminds me of what's going on here."**

The glasses-wearing man was quiet for a minute, processing the idea that he was helping Mukuro, Dagger and the other take on a drug gang that's apparently being assisted by an American PMC with supposed ties to a criminal group, which is allied with an international terrorist group.

 **"Do we know the other guy?"** Nine asked Lester, his hands placed at the back of his head.

Lester shook his head. **"No clue. I'm running on the assumption that he's got ties to Spectre just like Home Secretary Langdon."**

 **"Can you do facial rec on him, Lester?"** Mukuro asked him.

**"I'll give it a shot. No dice if nothing comes to that."**

**"Looks like this op is going to run into major trouble."** Robert sighed when he heard the information from the others. **"Is there any chance that we can get more backup on this one?"**

 **"Already got some names."** Lester was quick to give a reply. He was seen typing up something on his PC desktop. **"Dagger, it should be sent to your Iphone in a bit via e-mail."**

 **"Gotcha, Lester."** Dagger gave a thumbs up.

**"Some of the names you'll see from the list are freelancers I've met during some heists in the city."**

**"Are you sure it's okay to do so? I mean... I last heard from you, your buddies are in lot of heat with the FBI, CIA and Merryweather Security with a three-way shootout in the Kortz Center."**

**"No worries. Some of the guys I mentioned did some stints with us, so they're okay. Only thing is that when I told them about your situation... let's just say that they're getting way too excited to take on another conspiracy."  
**

**"Just what we need... adrenaline junkies."**

**"I'll keep in touch. I hope it's enough to make a decision."**

**"Thanks, Lester. We'll keep in touch."**

The Skype call ended and Mukuro closed the laptop.

"Okay guys. For the meantime, let's all get some rest. We'll need it."

As everyone went to the nearest room to get some sleep, Dagger got his Iphone and checked the e-mail that came a while from the information broker.

**As promised, I compiled a list of names for your little incoming operation in the UK. I can vouch for some of them since they've done some work with me in the past. They got some experience, but are still a bit new to the game. So watch out. I'll indicate with an asterisk mark on who happens to be a bit new in the roster. Let me know who you want to recruit and your method of entry. I'll send the details by tonight LA time.**

**\- Lester**

Chapter 1 END


	2. Infiltration

Near the outskirts of the Heygate Estate, the group assembled at New Kent Road towards the direction of the abandoned estate at Paragon Gardens. They were told by Lester to wait for them there since he took an early flight from LA to London with fake credentials to avoid being detected with some freelancers he met before.

They were also told that Lester will handle their weapons and needed supplies, including vehicles with help from contacts he made from the Dark web over the years.

"So how's Lester going to find us?" Mukuro asked Dagger while the two mercenaries waited inside the park by standing near the New Kent Road entrance. Both of them were not wearing their combat clothes/gear, but Dagger has an all-weather facemask that covered his nose and mouth. His head has a ballcap on.

"I dunno. I suspect he'll make contact with us soon since he's due to arrive any time now."

Dagger pointed to the others, who were also waiting on the side. They were mostly bored of waiting that Twelve played games on his smartphone. Robert looked at his wristwatch in order to check the time.

"I think he's here." Mukuro whispered to Dagger when the former saw a semi-bald man in a green checkered short sleeve polo shirt with a thermal shirt underneath with jeans and black loafers with no shoelaces with eyeglasses walking towards them. He was seen holding a cane in his left hand.

"Yeah..." Dagger murmured. The mercenary spotted at least three to four persons accompanying the man down the sidewalk towards the park entrance.

"Ah, greetings. Glad to see you're looking okay these days, Dagger." The glasses-wearing man shook hands with Dagger.

"Long time no see, Lester." Dagger shook hands with him. "Hope you took my advice on loosing weight despite your problem with the wasting disease."

"Well, I tried to." Lester shrugged his shoulders. "But things got out of hands lately in LA."

"Ahhh..."

"So," Lester looked at the side to see Nine, Twelve and Robert. "These are the guys who'll be joining up with the raid at the Heygate Estate."

"Yeah."

He then pointed to Robert with his cane. "And he's the one who's got experience with the place?"

"Yeah. But like you said last time, we don't know where Tyrone is."

Lester nodded, understanding his problem. "Of course, of course. But I have the details." He waved the manila envelope in front of him before he turned around to see the four persons already behind him, dressed in various jackets, pants and shoes/boots. "I forgot to introduce the guys who'll be helping out with your little crusade after I told them that this job is similar to the one done against the corruption in the FBI in collusion with Merryweather."

"Are they all freelancers?" Mukuro asked the man.

"Yes they are. Allow me to introduce you to them." Lester proceeded to make the introductions. "We have the hacker Rickie Lukens, used to be a staff member with Life Invader."

"'Sup?" The mustached man greeted the party.

"Isn't that the same company that made headline when Jay Norris was blown up in a ceremony..." Mukuro asked Lester with some suspicion when she eyed Rickie and the information broker.

"Y... yeah! Yeah!" Lester tried to deflect some suspicion from her, seeing that she was killing to gut him up. "I also got two guys as gunmen and one person as the designated driver. Guys, I'd like you to meet Daryl Johns, Karl Abolaji and Karim Denz."

Robert raised an eyebrow when he heard the word ''designated driver'' from Lester.

"They're just a part of a crew I assembled. Some of the others... I know them from reputation and I had to be vouched by some other information brokers who I know from the Dark web for some of the other guys I recruited since some of them never heard about me."

"So where are they?" Mukuro asked him.

"Some of the others didn't want to meet due to being busy since they're staking out the estate. But some of the others are getting ready for the raid. Otherwise, they've been debriefed about you guys." Lester shrugged his shoulders. "But otherwise, they're stationed near the estate and they should have more info soon since they're staking out the place." He then faced Dagger. "Come on, you and me need to talk."

"Sure." Dagger nodded.

The two walked down a path in the garden while the assembled party shook hands with the crew Lester brought.

"Here." Lester handed Dagger the envelope.

"What's in here?" Dagger was curious to know about the contents of the envelope that the broker needed to get them alone.

"Map of the estate, drone surveillance video captures and stuff." Dagger look over them and saw that they were very useful for any last minute changes to the raid.

"And the others?" A folder was seen inside the envelope.

"Some reports I got about what happened to Mail during your time with the French Foreign Legion in Operation Barkhane." Lester replied to Dagger's query. "Also has some details that I think Mukuro should know about what happened to her family after what you told me about her."

"Thanks, Les." Dagger patted him on the left shoulder. "Didn't know that you'd go all this way for the both of us."

"Well, you know me..." Lester had a smile on his face. "Uncle Lester's finding new ways to get information without the other side being aware of what I do."

"I guess I should ya, uncle." Dagger chuckled. "Hey, at least that punchline's okay. May need a bit more work."

Lester scratched the back of his head. "Hmm... I guess so."

Dagger got the map of the estate with the finalized plans on it from the envelope. "All right. For now, let's go over the plans one more time with the others."

The two eventually turned around and walked back to the New Kent Road entrance.

* * *

The group walked out of the park after they went over the plans one more time with the freelancers. They were heading towards the direction of Falmouth Road, where the vehicles were parked for free for the first two hours.

Lester showed the group a couple of 2016 Nissan X-Trail Visia SUVs with Gun Metallic finishes, a 2016 Kia Optima Sportswagon '3' sedan in a Satin Silver finish and a 2015 BMW 3 Series Saloon SE sedan with a Jet Black finish. Nearby was a 2017 Toyota Proace Verso Shuttle Medium vanin a Grey Limestone finish.

"Karim, I need you on the van. Twitch and Taliana'll be joining up later like we discussed." Lester told the freelancer his instructions.

"Gotcha, Les." Karim immediately made a run for the van.

Twitch got out of the BMW and greeted the group. He was the only freelancer hired for the job to wear a suit, black Mechanix gloves, tie, loafers and a necktie, although he wore shades and a radio earpiece on his left ear.

"Hey guys!" A female in her 30s with short black hair with a brown bomber jacket, pants, dark blue loafers and black Oakley gloves stepped out of the parked Optima Sportswagon.

"That's Taliana Martinez. Another freelancer who I recruited with Karim for the big job in LA." Lester introduced the female driver.

"So which car's going to be in which street slash road?" Robert asked Lester after he got a good look at the vehicles picked out for the job.

"And did you fund this entirely from your own pocket?" Nine raised the more serious question to him.

"I can assure all of you that the proceeds from the heist in LA gave my friends and I enough money to cover most of the things needed for the raid." Lester addressed Nine's concern about the funds paid for the mission. "And as for the vehicles... Karim will drive the Verso to the direction of the estate where the footbridges are by New Kent Road and Rodney Place. The X-Trail Visias will be used to conduct the blocking force on the intersection of Walworth Road and Heygate Street and Rodney Place and Heygate Street. The Optima'll be around to drop the group that'll infiltrate the estate through the locked chain link gates that'll head to the areas that are being demolished."

"Guess it's time to go." Twelve said when he stretched his arms up high.

"Your weapons and gear are in the van, so do get them before you move out."

After the group spent some time equipping themselves with their weapons, web gear and some change of clothes, the vehicles began to move towards their assigned spots in and around the housing estate for the raid.

* * *

As the convoy began to arrive at the outskirts of the estate, the vehicles proceeded to their arranged locations. The BMW 3 Series was not involved since Twitch ensured the safe journey of Lester and Ricky at London Full House, where a room was rented for him and the freelancers brought in from LA... mostly. The others recruited through the Dark web had their own place arranged by a mysterious information broker named Bain, who vouched for both Lester and the other freelancers who were arranged to be hired for the op. Twitch was told to be on standby.

While Lester heard a bit of info from the dark web about Bain and his connections to some heists in America's East Coast, Bain has pretty much heard about what he's been up to lately in helping his friends get out of being used by corrupt FBI agents and a shady businessman with connections to Merryweather. At one point, he offered to Lester the assistance of Twitch and two helicopter pilots named George and Alex during the heist on the city's Federal Reserve branch. Lester politely declined, telling him that they got the _best_ people on the job, but he would revisit his offer in the near future.

Which happens to be now.

Lester and Ricky were at work inside one of the rented room, setting up their laptops to be connected to the hotel's free wi-fi network.

"Okay, my man." Ricky snapped his fingers when his laptop got connected to the wi-fi network. "We are now live and online."

"Good work, Ricky." Lester took a seat in one of the sofa chairs. "Once I'm on the internet, we make contact with the guys on the ground. I'll try and see if Bain'll try to make contact with me."

Lester checked his e-mails and saw that Bain hasn't made contact with him.

_Oh well... He'll probably show up later. For now, I'll have to coordinate things with Ricky._

"I'm getting updates from the Spotter now. He's sending in some photos he just took with his camera." Ricky spoke to Lester before he connected the headset to his laptop.

"Alright." Lester connected his headset to the laptop and wore it around his neck. "E-mail it to me and I'll go over them."

"Gotcha."

Lester got a notification on his laptop on an e-mail that came in from Ricky. He opened it and saw that there was .RAR attachment. After running an anti-virus program to ensure it was safe to open, he download the contents and saw that it was photos of the estate and the roads around it.

"Okay... They're still all the same..."

The broker looked at the photo provided by the Spotter. However...

"Wait a second..."

Ricky turned around. "Something up, bro?"

Lester slowly nodded. "Yeah. Looks like some interesting personalities just showed up at the estate."

* * *

**"Hey guys. It's me."** Lester was speaking to the group on their earpieces. **"I just got some new information from the Spotter."**

 **"What about it?"**  Twelve asked him while he adjusted the earpiece's coil. 

**"The information confirms what we got based from the drone recon photos the Spotter took. Also he confirmed that Mr. Jones just went inside the Ashenden apartment block. But that's not the only thing we got."**

**"Is there someone else in the area?"** Robert raised the question. **  
**

**"Aside from the presence of Black Arrow, I'm also seeing someone else with Mr. Moreau, the African man you guys mentioned was with Col. Prentiss. I was able to confirm his identification. According to what I got, the man's a businessman..."**

**"That's great and all, but is there information on this mysterious guy who showed up with Mr. Moreau?"**  Mukuro was annoyed that Lester seemed to be going on and on without providing the relevant information.

**"Here. The photo I got should be in your smartphones any minutes now."**

Everyone got an incoming message alert from their smartphones that an image file was delivered to them. Most of them (except the drivers since they're, you know, driving and it would be illegal if they're caught driving while using a smartphone) opened the message sent to them and they were able to get the image file open.

"Who the heck's this guy?" Dagger murmured when he got a look at the photo while busy adjusting his balaclava.

The image file showed [a man in his late 30s with a muscular body in a gray suit and tie.](http://jamesbond.wikia.com/wiki/Mr._Hinx) He was also seen with very, very short hair and a trimmed beard.

**"That guy is known as Mr. Hinx. According to info I got from the Dark web, he's an assassin and the bodyguard of Spectre's leader... a Mr. Blofeld."**

**"Looks like we may have to contend with a musclehead who's going to be an obstacle."** Nine calmly replied after he got a good look at Mr. Hinx's face.

**"Regardless, the situation doesn't change. You guys get in there, meet up with any friendlies in the area and surround the estate to prevent enemy reinforcements from arriving."**

**"Roger that."**  Dagger replied on his earpiece. He and Mukuro wore the same Gun Metal Grey jackets and personal plate carriers. The latter decided to use a generic blue ballcap worn over her balalaclava-clad head.

* * *

[Infiltration Music](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=40fZZ-MZZ4A)

* * *

The vehicles were now at the outskirts of the estate. The X-Trail Visias moved in to the Walworth Road and Heygate Street and Rodney Place and Heygate Street intersection, parking them sideways in order to block it from any vehicular traffic. Karl and Robert were on the SUV that blocked the former with Daryl and on the latter. They were met by two hooded men who were waiting on the side of the road for them.

The Spotter made arrangements to have the chain link gates sealing off the roads leading to and from the estate by using lockpick cutters to destroy the padlocks a few hours before leaving the area. However, he told Lester that he'll stay within a safe distance so that he can do recon on the estate without fear of being shot at by hostiles.

One of them was a Caucasian man who identified himself as Ilija, a sniper who was hired by Lester to serve as their eyes and ear, ready for combat. The other one was an East Asian in his late 30s who identified himself as Nobuo Noburo aka Nathan Noburo, an ex-Japanese Special Force Group and Information Self-Defense Force operator. He too was hired by Lester mostly to serve as extra muscle, but also to serve as backup when the raid started. The two already wore their plate carriers, leg holsters, tac gloves with the balalclavas just worn on top of their heads. 

The Proace Verso parked next to the curb of the New Kent Road sidewalk. The right sliding door opened up to allow Dagger and Mukuro to head up to the footbridge over the road by running up the stairs. It was a good thing that not much vehicles or pedestrians were in the area. Otherwise, seeing a couple of persons with plate carriers over their soft shell jackets with small arms being publicly exposed would alarm a law-abiding citizen that he/she would immediately call 999 and report armed persons entering the estate.

The Optima Sportswagon parked next to the curb of the Rodney Place sidewalk in front of the chain link door that sealed off the Victory Community Park. Nine and Twelve got out of the station wagon. Unlike the others, they wore facemasks to cover their noses and mouths. They simply climbed the brick wall that served the estate as its perimeter.

All of them, except for the drivers, wore various types of plate carriers, web belts, tac gloves and pistol holsters on either their waist or in the IWB holster placed on their back while having different small arms as acquired by Lester. Dagger and Mukuro were the only ones who wore and used the same clothes/weapons/gear that they used previously.

The gunmen are armed with Taran Tactical Innovations TR-1 Ultra-Light carbines outfitted with black Surefire M900A Vertical Foregrips and EOTech Holographic Hybrid Sight I EXPS3-4s with G33.STS Magnifiers on the upper receiver and suppressors on the barrels. For this raid, Nine and Twelve were armed with Brügger & Thomet MP9 submachine guns outfitted with suppressors and Aimpoint CompM5 red dot scopes on the upper receiver. Ilija armed himself with a PGM 338 sniper rifle equipped with a suppressor and a Zeiss Conquest V6 1-6x24 riflescope on the receiver.

Dagger and Mukuro were armed with the IWI Tavor X95 carbines, also equipped with black Surefire M900A Vertical Foregrips and EOTech Holographic Hybrid Sight I EXPS3-4s with G33.STS Magnifiers on the upper receiver and suppressors. However, the two were equipped with their own secondary weapons for the raid. For the former, he was seen equipped with a Philippine Marine Corp-made Night Fighting Weapon System sniper rifle with a Bushnell Banner 3-9x 40mm riflescope and a KCI 5.56 NATO 50-round drug magazine. The latter was equipped with a Fostech Origin 12 shotgun with a Hard Black finish, a Troy Industries Picatinny Modular Vertical Forend Grip and a 10-round box magazine with the first round loaded used for breaching.

They were also equipped with Taser X26P pistols as their main non-lethal weapon.

Otherwise, most of them have Glock 17M pistols, except for Dagger and Mukuro since they used their own sidearms, just to make sure that they have magazine commonality. They also had flashbangs, smoke and stingball grenade in case they would encounter any teenagers or young kids trained to fight them off.

 **"Okay guys. So far, the path is clear. The walkways were suppose to be sealed off with metal mesh doors, but the work was halfway done when the gang wars started there."** The teams were moving in while Lester was making contact with them on their earpieces. **"So you may encounter some of them not completely fixed. But even so, you should be able to kick them down with a strong kick or in the case of Mukuro, her shotgun with breaching rounds should help in case the doors won't budge."**

 **"Understood."** Twelve replied on the earpiece. **"Nine and I are making our way around the side towards the Ashenden block. So far, the garages won't be a problem since they're welded shut for good."**

**"This is Mukuro. Dagger and I already walked over the New Kent Road footbridge. There's a metal mesh door in the way, but it looks vandalized. We should be able to get it out of the way since it's partially off its hinges."**

**"It's Robert. I found a chain link gate that seals off the way between Deacon Way and Heygate Street. They've used rope to temporarily close the gate, so it's easy to cut it open."**

**"Alright guys."**  Ricky was next to speak to the teams. **"Those Black Arrow dudes will have their radios up and a few of their teams are on standby. I'll be here to jam their comms once the heat goes down."**

 **"I'll work with Ricky to jam BA comms and locate their reinforcements in case things go bad for you guys there."**  Lester informed the others. **"I'm getting word from another information broker that we may be able to get reinforcements of our own. I'll check in later and see if it still holds water later."**

Karl was told to stay behind and keep an eye on the Walworth Road and Heygate Street. He was told by Lester on radio that there's an unlikely chance that they can get last minute backup, so he has Ilija to help him out.

* * *

Col. Prentiss has just gotten off the phone with his boss, the CEO slash founder of Black Arrow, over the details on the little side op he's going in London. He did report that the training of Tyrone's gang is doing well that they're not shooting their weapons like some two-bit gangster. Rather, they're actually improving their field coordination in going in a potential firefight.

"Hope that he's not just getting paranoid over his insistence on having a team ready to be deployed nearby..." Prentiss grumbled after a BA contractor informed him that Moreau was waiting to speak to him.

"Alright." The man told the contractor. "Tell him that I'm on the way."

Prentiss was on the way to meet with him, being in one of the abandoned apartments he used to make his private phone call a while ago. Making his way inside, he was ushered towards a side corridor where Moreau and Hinx were seen waiting for him.

"Mr. Moreau." Prentiss greeted the French Spectre representative.

"Colonel Prentiss." Moreau returned the gesture. "Allow me to introduce to you Mr. Hinx. He's on loan from my superior for the duration of this operation."

The muscular man nodded at the colonel after he was returned.

"Does he know how to use a gun at least?"

Hinx placed a hand inside his dress coat and took out a dual barreled Arsenal Firearms 2011 Dueller Prismatic pistol.

"Ahh... A pistol with two barrels instead of one."

"My superior wants to know if everything is all right with Mr. Jones." Moreau spoke up to the contractor.

Prentiss pondered over the question before he said. "I guess... I notice that the man's getting a bit more paranoid about the deceased Home Secretary's links with Spectre that he could be indirectly linked to him and all that crap."

"Colonel Prentiss..." A BA contractor with a facemask, coyote tan plate carrier vest worn over his black hoodie ran up to him. "We may have a problem or two."

"What's going on?" Prentiss asked the contractor.

* * *

  _"Jake mentioned that he's having a hard time dealing with some of Mr. Jones' crew in taking their training seriously."_

_"Can't be helped. In the meantime, tell Jake that he needs to suck it up."_

_"Understood, sir."_

A couple of men in their late 20s, both Caucasian and wore hoodies, jeans and sneakers, were walking down Deacon Way in the direction of the Marston apartment block. They have Tokarev TT-33 pistols tucked in their waistband, acquired through the local black market.

Unknown to them, Nine and Twelve went to hide, using the wall corners and scattered debris that could hide their bodies from view. They waited and waited until they were in their sights.

Nine raised his hand slightly and signaled to Twelve to wait and hide behind some of the scattered debris, made from crumbled brick walls that were large enough for the latter to use. The former used the wall corner to hide.

"Bloody hell..." One of the hoodie-wearing men sighed. "I don't get why we're getting small arms training by some big-time PMC..."

"Well the guys have said that it improved their reaction time when facing against the filth..."

Twelve peeked out from the pile of debris and saw them approaching their position. His grip on his MP9 tightened, not knowing if he should fire now and risk missing a shot or just wait for them to get closer and risk being spotted if he makes one wrong move.

Nine conducted a brass check on his MP9 to make sure that it was loaded. After he examined his weapon, he peeked out to see the two gang members still unaware that they've infiltrated the eastern part of the estate.

The two teenagers swiftly emerged out of hiding and shouldered their MP9s. They immediately peered through the CompM5 red dot scopes and took aim at the gang members, who were surprised by their presence as they reached for their pants to get their pistols.

The suppressed submachine guns were fired at them, taking them completely off their guard as they were not given the opportunity to defend themselves.

They ceased firing after the two gang members fell down, now lifeless after taking several bullets to the chest.

["Wait."] Nine told Twelve after he first lowered his submachine gun. The glasses-wearing teen wanted to see if anyone would come rushing to the scene. And if so, they would need to determine if the person is a teen, a young child or a man in his 20s/30s before they would decide on what type of force to use.

["Looks clear to me."] Twelve sighed after he finished firing his weapon.

The two waited to see if anyone had seen or heard the two gang members go down. After a few minutes, it seems like no one has noticed anything.

Nine motioned to Twelve to stick next to him. They raised their MP9s, but kept their fingers off the trigger as they advanced forward towards their destination.

* * *

Dagger and Mukuro had already made it to the estate's central area, running across several footbridges to reach the ones that were in front of Ashenden, being positioned towards the direction of Deacon Way.

"All right. We made it. Looks like the infiltration went well." Dagger murmured when he got the NFWS ready after he adjusted the rifle sling on his right shoulder.

"Okay. You got the area covered?" Mukuro knelt down and secured her vest's straps by making them tighter.

"Yeah. As long as the others don't do anything that can alert the entire gang. Or their Black Arrow and Spectre backers."

Mukuro looked down on the streets and saw Robert leading the other gunmen on the approach. The plan the two had was to stay in the footbridge near the destination and use it to conduct overwatch and suppressive fire against hostiles who would either bust out of the apartment block and use the footbridges or enemy reinforcements from using the other apartment blocks.

 **"Lester, it's me."** Dagger got on his radio.  **"Are there any changes with Mr. Jones or with their Black Arrow and Spectre guests?"  
**

**"Nothing yet. It looks like Spectre has their bodyguard in the building. Aside from that, there's a few BA contractors, but they're mostly in the building just to provide close protection for Col. Prentiss and his Spectre allies."**

**"Numbers?"**

**"Initial estimates from the Spotter suggests no more than twelve contractors on standby."**

**"Roger that."**

Dagger peered through the Bushnell riflescope while he conducted a check on the other footbridges and the roads around the estate. He saw Robert leading Daryl and Nathan towards the Ashenden's ground floor entrance.

"Looking good..." Dagger kept his focus while he got his right index finger near the trigger. Mukuro provided rear security and fire support for Dagger should things come to worse.

* * *

Lester continued to monitor the radio channels used by Black Arrow while Ricky checked on the comms BA is using in creating a workable hack that can jam them for a while so that Dagger and the others can break into Ashenden, locate their targets and get out once things are finished.

"Dude...!" Ricky shouted to get Lester's attention. "I'm getting something here."

"Are we being contacted?" Lester walked over to get a good look at Ricky's laptop after he took off his headset.

"I think so, yo."

Ricky pointed to Lester that an unknown person was trying to make contact via Telegram.

"I have a bad feeling about this..." Lester murmured when he saw that the contact details are unknown when Ricky tried to find out who the person was.

"Should we like... answer the person?"

Lester read the message on Ricky's Telegram app after it was booted up for some time. It had the following message:

**I hope that you were able to have the additional manpower that you needed, Lester Crest.**

Lester looked around the hotel room when he saw that the message was addressed to him.

**Relax. I'm not here to hamper your operation. Otherwise, I would have done so a few days ago even before you started your work against Black Arrow and Spectre alike. Remember, I'm like you. After all, I'm after whatever secrets those two organizations have.  
**

Lester was relieved after he read the message. "It's Bain. I'll go and talk to him." He walked back to his laptop and wore his headset before he booted his Telegram app on his laptop.

 **"Glad to see you have your ways of greeting a fellow broker, Bain."** Lester spoke to the person from the headset's microphone with sarcasm in his voice.

 **"I would have know that you can figure out who was talking to you, Lester."** Bain chuckled on the line. **"But seriously, I'm also observing the raid from my end here."**

**"Well... thanks for volunteering your time."**

**"My crew's taking some time off from a previous heist that they did a few days ago, so there's no contact with them as a safety precaution."**

**"And you're confident that no one can track you talking to me?"**

**"Well, we're going to use Telegram to continue our conversation in a bit. The same app used by terrorist like the Islamic State. Our chat'll be a private one, so there'll be no way that anyone can trace this."**

**"At least it'll be better than using LifeInvader."**

* * *

Robert led the infiltration into Ashenden from the ground floor via stairs. The lifts were in operation, but the sounds of the lift doors opening and closing can easily give away their stealth approach. Everyone planned the operation to be one for infiltration by ensuring that Jones nor his Black Arrow/Spectre allies will be able to find out that they've infiltrate the estate until the very last minute.

"All clear." Robert told the others as they pushed forward and climbed up the stairs. "Seems like no one's posted at the stairs."

"All the better for us then." Daryl grinned as he followed Robert up the stairs. Nathan kept an eye on their rear in case of a potential sneak attack.

 _Almost there_. Robert thought to himself when he went up the stairs to the third floor. **"Lester, we're already at the destination."**

**"Alright. Bain has made contact with us and he's providing more intel on Black Arrow and Spectre's activities in the abandoned estate."**

**"Are we expecting any help?"** Robert gestured to the trio to put on their balaclavas.

**"Maybe... Depends on how fast the person can arrive. For now, we're on our own."**

**"Understood."**  Robert and Nathan stacked up on one side of the door with Daryl on the other side of the door leading to the third floor of the apartment block.

Nathan patted Robert's left shoulder twice.

With the act done, Robert slowly gripped the door knob and moved it carefully to see if it was rigged with something on the other side. He carefully moved it until he can peek through the slightly open space.

"All clear." The ex-para whispered after getting a good look. "Let's move in."

The four men carefully entered the floor, clearing the immediate area before they began their search for the target.

* * *

Nine and Twelve made their approach towards the eastern side of Ashenden. So far, they encounter a few gang members loitering around the area. And from the look of things, they were waiting since they weren't given orders on what to do for the meantime.

["Counting around five to six armed gangsters."] Twelve whispered as they came near the building's east side.

["Don't do anything to give away ourselves."] Nine gave him his instructions.

Twelve rolled his eyes. ["Hey, you know that I'm not to give myself away unless it's necessary."]

["Of course not."]

Nine simply crouched and shouldered the MP9 before he opened fire, keeping his shots accurate with the red dot scope. Twelve later joined in, opting to not use the grenades in order to keep the element of surprise to their advantage until they can join the others inside the apartment block.

["All clear."] Twelve told Nine after the last gang member was shot dead before he can take out an Ingram MAC-10 submachine gun.

Nine nodded and moved to the eastern entrance. **"This is Nine. I think I spotted a vehicle parked nearby."**

 **"Roger, Nine."**  Lester replied to Nine.  **"Anything specific?"**

Nine and Twelve inspected the parked vehicle. **"Appears to be a black Cadillac Escalade ESV. I'm assuming that this is a 2016 model."**

**"Get me the plate details and I'll look it up. For now, we assume that this is a hostile vehicle."**

**"Understood."**

The two teens waited near the parked SUV after Twelve found the license plates and gave the details to Lester.

* * *

Lester and Ricky were monitoring the transmissions from the teams as they began their infiltration of the Ashenden. Not only that, but they listened to updates being made by Ilija and by Dagger, being placed to do overwatch of the outside to make sure no one would get in the area and interfere.

 **"All clear."** Ilija reported in. **"So far, everything's quiet on my end."**

 **"Same goes for me."**  Dagger reported in as well.  **"How's the Spotter?"**

 **"He said things haven't changed yet since you guys moved in."**  Lester gave the reply as he looked through the map of the entire estate from his laptop. 

**"Hopefully the guy hasn't left yet. He's very useful in keeping an eye on things where we don't have easy access to."**

**"Agreed. Wish I found out about him back in LA."**  Lester sighed.  **"Anyway, I'll keep an eye on things with the Metropolitan Police's emergency channels in case they get wind of the raid."**

**"Thanks a bunch."**

**"Yeah. Don't mention it."**

Ricky waited for a search update to come back regarding the ESV's plates. His laptop gave a prompt that the details are now available.

"I got something regarding those plates." Ricky opened the file that the program compiled.

"Please tell me that you got some good information."

"Indeed I do." Ricky showed his laptop to Lester, which showed the details of the ESV's license plates and the registration details belong to Tyrone Jones.

"So it belongs to our drug dealer friend." Lester nodded after he briefly read the details on who the ESV is _legally_ registered to.

 **"Okay guys."** Lester made contact with Nine and Twelve. **"We got a hit on the license plate you mentioned. That's one of the vehicles registered to Mr. Jones?"**

**"So how does a drug dealer have a vehicle registered to him when he's suppose to be known by the Metropolitan Police?"**

**"If there's one thing that ought to be know is that money talks. For the meantime, feel free to take care of Mr. Jones' SUV. We can't let it get away from the scene."**

**"Understood. Nine out."**

* * *

["Let's sabotage the SUV."] Nine told Twelve after he took a good look around the vehicle as Twelve searched the dead gang members for the SUV's key.

["Okay! I found it!"] Twelve showed the SUV's key with the remote device in a keychain.

["Perfect..."] Nine took the keychain and used the remote to unlock the doors. Twelve got in the driver's seat from the right side since the vehicle's steering wheel is on the right.

Nine was about to enter when he saw a gang member rushing towards his position. As the gang member cocked the bolt of his MAC-10, Nine saw him getting shot at the left temple.

He noted that he didn't any audible gunshots, which meant that it was fired from a suppressed weapon.

Not that he knows where it's coming from.

 **"We took care of that guy who just came out of another apartment block."** Nine heard Mukuro's voice on the radio. He assumed that she was speaking to everyone else who was sharing the same frequency. **"Dagger took the shot."**

 **"Roger that."**  Ricky replied. 

 **"Well that was... interesting."** Lester was not that surprised that a gang member came out from another apartment block. **"Must be someone who was on break or something since most of Mr. Jones' gang is concentrated inside Ashenden."**

 **"So what now?"**  Nine asked on the frequency as he got on the SUV. Twelve drove the vehicle and used it as a makeshift barrier on the road, seeing that it was still in good condition.

**"We'll still stick with Ilija and Dagger providing cover fire. Robert and the others are still conducting their advance inside to search for Mr. Jones, Mr. Moreau and Col. Prentiss. With any luck, they should stumble onto them sooner or later."**

**"Understood."**

**"You guys cover the entrance and use the SUV as a barrier."**

* * *

The four-man team advanced inside Ashenden, keeping their Ultra-Light carbines raised up for the eventuality that an armed man will come out and confront them. They moved in a straight line, being on the alert and watching the front, side and rear for anything out of the ordinary.

 **"How are you guys doing?"** Lester made contact with Robert over the comms.

 **"Nothing to worry about..."** Robert was about to give a full reply when an armed gang member came out of an apartment behind Nathan. He was about to shout when Nathan grabbed him by the shirt collar and punched him twice in the face to knock him out cold. **"And we took care of a gang member who's about to break our cover."**

**"Well, nothing changed so far aside from the recent spotting of a gang member from another apartment block Dagger took care of... So uh... I don't need to remind you guys to watch your backs."**

**"But you already did, Lester."** Daryl raised the  _said_ issue to the broker.

**"Never mind. Ricky's trying to see if he can break into BA's comm channels right now. He should give us an update in a minute or two."**

**"Got some news. Though it depends if you want to hear the good one or the bad one."**

Robert gestured to the others to stop. **"Let's hear the bad news first."**

 **"Okay..."**  Ricky was stoked to give the needed info.  **"Some of the BA contractors have been trying to get in touch with some of the gang members killed outside. Now I don't know if they're aware that they're dead dead, considering that we went in without alerting anyone and I heard a partial radio transmission, but Mr. Moreau is considering the option to have the contractors deploy out."  
**

_Just what we need..._   **"And the good news?"**

**"The good news is that he's currently talking to Mr. Jones with Col. Prentiss. Which means you can bag 'em all at once."**

Lester moved in to speak before Ricky could potentially get carried away. **"Moreau's got Mr. Hinx to serve as muscle. And from what information I can find, he's very determined to do his job and he won't stop even if he's on the loosing end until he can do his work. Be warned that he got his fingernails replaced with razor sharp ones, so he's deadly in close quarters combat."**

 **"For a minute there, I thought we're gonna have to face off against a homosexual with sharpened fingernails, brother."** Daryl chuckled after he heard Lester's answer.

"Come on..." Robert chided the hired gunman. "Concentrate."

"Okay..." Nathan informed the other three. "Gunman's taken care of. I stashed his body back at the apartment where he came out."

"Good." Robert nodded. "Hopefully we don't encounter any teenagers or kids ready to fight us."

A door had opened up and a woman in her 20s with her baby, held in her arms, was seen heading out when Robert moved in to talk to her.

"I need you to get back inside." Robert instructed the woman. "It's not safe."

The woman nodded and went back inside, locking the door after she went back into the apartment.

* * *

"How's Dagger doing?"

"Looks like it's going well, sir. But are you sure about this... I mean."

"I understand your concern. As long as we don't reveal our hand out there, we'll be fine. Well... maybe except for our enemies. They'll probably know."

"We should probably start recruiting more allies to help us against their plans. They've been doing this for a long time even before we started to get involved."

"I understand, sir."

"Let me know when there's an update on things going on from America and Japan."

"I'll get right on it."

* * *

A blond Caucasian man with glasses was told by a waiter inside Fischer's, an Austrian restaurant located at London's Marylebone High Street near the Sherlock Holmes Museum. It was a table seated for three persons.

"Thank you." The man thanked the waiter and informed him that his food was already ordered and is in the processed of being served.

"I'm so glad that you decided to receive my invitation, Mr. Lane..." The grey-haired man wearing a navy blue silk Nehru jacket, brown pants and brogue shoes invited his guest to sit down. He was seen eating the Lamb Goulash.

"Thank you, Mr. Blofeld. And please, call me Solomon." Solomon sat down on his seat. _Looks like the intel we got is right. That man is Ernst Stavro Blofeld and he wants to make an alliance between the Syndicate and Spectre. We may share some interests, but it depends on where we stand._

"Of course, of course." Blofeld showed him his seat after he ate a piece of the lamb.

Solomon took his seat when the waiter presented to him the Grilled Spatchcock Chicken with Salsa Verde on it.

"I hope you don't mind. I took the liberty of ordering your lunch." Blofeld said after he finished chewing his food. "And we should have one more guest joining us."

"I understand." Solomon nodded. "I'm assuming that you called for this lunch meeting because of an offer you're making..."

"Ah..." Blofeld smiled and nodded. "I'm glad to see that you're eager to listen to me. This should be interesting for our guest when he arrives."

An East Asian man in his early 50s with black hair and a trimmed goatee arrived inside Fischer's. He took off his brown trenchcoat, revealing his white dress shirt, grey pants and black Venetian-style shoes. He smiled and shook hands with Blofeld when he was directed to the table.

"I'm pleased to see that you made it, Peter." Blofeld shook hands with Peter Choi, the ex-Commissioner of the Hong Kong Police Force, currently a private security consultant operating out of Britain in the IT industry.

"When I was told you were having a meeting with Mr. Lane, I immediately came here as soon as I could." replied the ex-Commissioner, having a slight Cantonese accent when he spoke. He took his seat next to Solomon.

"I hope I didn't interrupt you or anything."

"No, no. There was a meeting that was rescheduled a few hours ago before my secretary told me that you were looking for me when I was in a phone call." Peter shook hands with Solomon. "So, what's the agenda for today?"

"Well..." Blofeld started the conversation. "The agenda for today is that Mr. Lane represents the Syndicate and he seems eager to listen to an offer for an alliance."

Solomon nodded. "Yes. When we last spoke, I was not so sure about it considering that various intelligence agencies had been tracking down Spectre's activities since the end of the Cold War."

Peter crossed his arms when he listened to the blonde man. "Was there something that changed your mind?"

Solomon was silent for a minute or two before he replied. "Yes. Yes there was."

"And that was?"

"We share mutual enemies. And if I recall, you mentioned about some group that's been interrupting your operations alongside James Bond." The query made by Solomon was directed at Blofeld.

"Indeed they have. Things were doing well, but they've interrupted some minor operations that has little consequence to me since we're able to restart them immediately." Blofeld sighed after he finished his lamb. "But I'm concerned that this group, whoever is bankrolling them, will come butt heads with me." He pointed his fork at Solomon and Peter. "And to you and you."

"I can ask my contacts, see if there's something that can be done to alleviate the situation." Peter raised a suggestion to Blofeld. "But will the Impossible Mission Force make a move?"

"No." Blofeld shook his head. "From what I heard from a contact in the CIA, they're too busy investigating the lead on the Syndicate, which according to him, their director believes to be a spy's fairy tale."

Solomon smirked when he heard about the Syndicate's existence being questioned by the CIA. Which is one of the most efficient foreign intelligence organization within the First World. He began to eat his food while he wondered on his thoughts.

"I have someone on the inside... within British intelligence." Blofeld addressed Peter's query. "He's been good to me. In fact, I'm receiving word from him that he relayed orders to some of his men within the Metropolitan Police to hold back a potential assault on the Heygate Estate."

"I remember that place was suppose to be condemned..." Solomon mused, having been familiar with the place. "So you're working with the local drug dealers."

"Only because the Home Secretary, who has sadly passed away, is one of mine as well. He's a good man as well."

"I see."

"So this means we are all in agreement?" Peter asked the two men at the table.

"It would be for our mutual interests if we combine our resources." Blofeld replied to Peter. "But as long as our operations don't conflict with our interests... legitimate or otherwise."

"I agree with him."

"We can convene again in the future." Blofeld said before he started to conclude the meeting. "I'll have another meeting soon with a... friend who can make some arrangements regarding some sponsorship projects that they want to handle."

"Who are they and who are they going to bankroll?"

The leader of Spectre smirked at Peter. "Oh. Wouldn't you like to know?"

* * *

Col. Prentiss made his presence known when he entered an apartment that was being used as a private meeting spot for Moreau and Jones, the former being accompanied by Hinx for protection.

The BA officer made arrangements of his own to have BA contractors inside as well for the trio's protection while the outside would be guarded by some of Jones' own gang members.

"Glad to see you, Colonel." Moreau greeted the colonel. "I hope things weren't difficult with your superior back in Washington."

"No, no." Prentiss sat down at the nearest sofa chair. "Just cleared a few things up with regards to this little venture he arranged." _Good thing too that I gave the order to not let the contractors wear or carry anything that can give away their affiliations to Black Arrow for this op._

Hinx simply stared at Prentiss took his seat. His hands were positioned over his pelvis, one hand over the other.

"I've made contact with Mr. Blofeld a few minutes before you arrived, Colonel." Moreau explained to him the details he had after his previous phone call. "He seems to be concerned that with the death of the Home Secretary, there's going to be an intensified investigation on our links to him and to Mr. Jones."

"I thought you blokes said that you got someone on the inside." Jones eyed the French-African man cautiously.

"Yes, we do. But according to our recent update with him, even he doesn't have enough influence to ward off the investigation. Sooner than later, we need to burn our connections with him if you want your drug operation to survive this."

"And he's the only one who could block any filth investigation into my operation..."

One of the BA contractors was on the radio when he heard a transmission in his earpiece, who was armed with a Heckler & Koch MP5A3 submachine gun with a red dot scope on the upper receiver. The submachine gun was set to fire at three round bursts.

"What's going on?" Prentiss asked the contractor when he approached him from the side.

"Sir, we got some bad news."

Prentiss gritted his teeth. "How bad?"

"Some of the gang member we trained were trying to make contact with some of their guys outside. Said it's been twelve minutes since the last radio contact."

"Get everyone in position." Prentiss told the contractor his instructions.

"Mr. Hinx." Moreau called for the man's attention.

Hinx nodded, looking at the man for instructions.

"We leave at once. We need to cut our meeting short."

While Hinx was making preparations to leave, Moreau took out his Samsung smartphone and made a phone call.

"Get in touch with our teams." Prentiss spoke to an armed contractor. "Tell them that the situation has gotten complicated."

As they were about to leave the apartment, the four men could hear automatic gunfire from within the interior of the Ashenden.

* * *

At the outskirts of the estate, a blond Caucasian man was seen standing on the roof of a building overlooking the area. He was wearing a gray suit, necktie, white dress shirt and black Oxford shoes with an earpiece on his right ear. At the moment, he was observing the raid on the estate via binoculars. Beyond that, he couldn't get a look at what's happening inside.

"Looks like things are heating up at Heygate Estate." The man said out loud. He spotted a speeding SUV making an approach towards the estate, so he peered through his binoculars to see what was going on there.

A 2016 Mitsubishi Shogun LWB SG4 SUV with a Eiger Grey finish was seen making the approach to the estate. Even with the parked X-Trail blocking the way and gunfire from Karl and Ilija, the driver didn't show signs of hesitating and chose to drive over the sidewalk to bypass the roadblock. The gunfire resulted in several bullet holes and broken windows, none of them hitting the SUV's critical parts like the engine body.

Taking a look at the estate grounds, a few gang members ran out from some of the dilapidated apartment blocks towards Ashenden until they were shot dead in their tracks.

 **"If you're hearing me, 007, then it means that no one's jamming this transmission yet."** A calm, but frustrated man was heard on the earpiece.

 **"Indeed I'm hearing you, Q. I appreciate you covering for me. Did M ask for me after my side trip from Austria?"** The man known by the codename of 007 replied on his line. When he tried to focus on where some of the sporadic gunfire came from, he saw Dagger firing his NFWS with Mukuro covering his rear. Nine and Twelve were seen as well firing their MP9s, using the Escalade ESV as cover since the vehicle was being shot at with bullet holes on the windshield and the body. The two were seen moving in to the apartment block after they thinned down the hostiles until no shots were being made against them.

 **"He has, but I'm sure he has ways of finding out about what you're doing sooner or later."** Q replied.  **"I'm assuming that the things from Austria is related to this how?"**

**"Mr. White mentioned about having some personal links with some interesting people there."**

**"How so?"**

**"Well..."** The agent lowered his binoculars as he walked back to the rooftop door, leading to the staircase.  **"I'll have to go and get a closer look."**

**"Do be careful. I'm not sure when M may have to check in with me again to see if you're still around."**

**"Will do."**

* * *

Hinx and a few BA contractors began to escort Moreau and Prentiss through the apartment block as gunfire was heard from a distance, presumably from the gang members trying to fight off the incursion into their territory. They were moving towards the nearest staircase when one of the contractors reported contact with a hostile.

Prentiss listened in on his earpiece as he got the transmission from a BA contractor who had been shot by Robert as he and the other two gunmen made contact and are moving in towards their location. The last transmission he got was that Jones was leading the charge to stall the trio for the time being. He also heard that two unidentified persons were reported to be inside the block, most likely trying to stall their efforts to evacuate.

"We head towards the nearest elevator." Prentiss ordered the contractors. One of them pointed to a working elevator within a distance.

"Go, go, go!" The three BA contractors immediately moved in to secure the elevator. Two of them secured the area while the third pressed the button to call for the elevator car to the third floor.

When the chime was heard, the elevator doors opened up to reveal no one was inside. When the contractors gave the thumbs up to indicate that the car was clear of any occupants, Nine and Twelve emerged from the car's ceiling and opened fire while they leaned out from it by exposing their bodies.

The Spectre enforcer motioned to Moreau to get inside an empty apartment while he helped Prentiss get some of the wounded contractors after they were shot by using the drag handles to get them dragged inside before they would be killed.

"Help me with this!" Prentiss motioned to Hinx as he lobbed a primed M18 smoke grenade after he took it from the grenade pouch of a BA contractor's plate carrier. Hinx nodded and followed what he was doing and tossed out another M18 to fill the hallway full of red and yellow smoke.

"Dammit..." Nine gritted his teeth when the smoke began to obscure his vision. Not that he can't see, but he can't see anything beyond the hallway if any hostiles were in the area.

Twelve opted to hang back and conduct a brass check on his MP9 to see if there was still ammo in his magazine.

 _What the?_ Nine could hear someone running very fast towards their position. He wasn't sure who was out there, but the smoke cleared out when Hinx executed the single leg running dropkick attack at him.

 _Shit!_ The teen nearly was kicked if he didn't make a last minute decision to dodge by leaning back on the wall. After Hinx realized that he missed, he used his right arm to parry a punch meant for his face from Nine.

Hinx glared at him when he kicked him hard on his plate carrier that he fell down. Twelve leaped on his back and placed his arms around his neck.

However, Hinx rolled his eyes since he was not amused by the sneak attack. He grabbed him and threw him over his shoulder. This made Twelve land on top of Nine. Their MP9s were left dangling on their side, thanks to the combat slings placed on their right shoulders.

Chapter 2 END


	3. Troubles

Somewhere in a dimly lit room, a person wearing a balaclava and Chinese-made American Woodland BDUs, was seen looking at a PC laptop screen. It appears that the person was talking to someone online via Skype desktop app with a VPN being used to mask the location's IP address.

 **< "How are things there?">** The balaclava-clad man asked the person after they started videoconferencing in Arabic.

 **< "We're being careful as usual.">** The other man on the laptop screen sighed. **< "Considering the recent attacks made by Daesh in most parts of Europe, it'll be harder for us to easily mobilize without getting the attention of the police. Especially with their territory getting smaller and smaller, they'll be desperate to do something to show the entire world that they're still capable... I don't know if we can help give the People's Liberation and Resistance a name outside of the Middle East.">**

**< "I don't really know if it's worth the time to beat Daesh at their own game while we should support Baghdad to crush them before they become a menace that we can't even take down.">**

**< "Hey. I just volunteered with the PLR. You need to take up that issue with Al-Bashir on that.">**

**< "Whatever... I'll try to make contact with Gazul as soon as possible. See what we can do. We may have to get on top of them to get an advantage if we have to.">**

**< "Understood. I'll check on what's happening on my end.">**

Some sudden tremors were felt in the room. In fact, those tremors appear to be resemble those heard from very, very loud explosions.

**" Allah Ma’ak."**

**" Allah Ma’ak."**

The man immediately booted down the laptop after clearing the cookies of his browser, activating the password protection feature. Just as he was about to leave the room with his laptop inside a shoulder bag, he heard loud gunfire coming from somewhere.

<"It's Daesh, Ali!!"> A man of Arab origin with the same Woodland BDUs and vest with a Norinco Type 56 assault rifle slung on his back, a balaclava worn over his head and a leg holster strapped on the right leg ran up behind the masked man and grabbed his arm. <"They're raiding the place while we're conducting a siege on Mosul!">

<"But how did they breach this place, Umar?!"> Ali ran alongside Umar down the corridor towards a three-way intersection when the latter turned around to fire his Type 56 at Daesh fighters, who were seen clad in various desert camo BDUs, boots and shemaghs to cover their face. A few were shot dead, which forced the others to crouch or go prone to avoid being hit by gunfire.

<"They used a car bomb to take out the entrances to the base before they struck us by surprise from all directions..."> Umar shouted when he opened fire at the Daesh fighters. <"It's as if they've been keeping an eye on us for a while ever since we started the operation on Mosul for the fourth time.">

<"I know it wasn't a good idea to set up base near the outskirts of the city when Daesh can send in their best.">

Ali covered for Umar when he saw a Daesh fighter show up in front of Umar. <"Get down!">

Umar ducked down and clutched his shoulder bag when Ali opened fire a few time to take out the hostile fighter. He fliped the bayonet out when another Daesh fighter tried to get in close with a knife, except that Ali had the better opportunity since he was trained to handle rifles and carbines with bayonets attached in close quarters. It resulted in the fighter being stabbed in the chest multiple times with the fatal stab on his throat.

<"What's happening now?"> Umar got up with help from Ali, feeling a bit tired from constantly running. It didn't help that their makeshift base was very big and had a lot of ground to cover.

<"We're advised to get away from here and regroup to another PLR base ASAP."> Ali led Umar by putting his right hand on his left shoulder while he gripped the Type 56 from the pistol grip held with his left hand.

<"Any backup from Hezbollah?"> Ali ran besides Umar, the latter leading him to a section of the hideout that goes to an underground corridor. The door was locked by Ali after it was closed to stall the Daesh fighters from pursuing them.

The two PLR fighters ran towards a waiting AIL Storm M-240 Mark II Armored Border Patrol jeep with a driver provided, provided covertly by the Syrian Army after they took it from abandoned FSA vehicles left during a fight between them and ISIL fighters a few weeks ago.

Four PLR fighters were present to provide covering eye in case Daesh would be encountered. They stood near a parked AM General M1114 Humvee armed with a Russian-made Tula DShK heavy machine gun encased in an armored gun turret with armored plating over the rest of the vehicle's body and in Iraqi desert camo paint with the Iraqi flag painted on the driver and front passenger doors. It was previously used by the Iraqi Army before ISIL captured it, which was subsequently captured by PLR fighters during an armed encounter alongside Hezbollah and Quds Force.

<"I don't know... I got word from the others that communications with them stopped because our gear was seized and destroyed by those Daesh dogs. We're going to be one of the last ones to withdraw from here. This place is lost to us now."> Umar motioned to Ali to get inside the back seat of the jeep while Ali got inside the front passenger seat. The driver told the two of them to hang on because he was driving as fast as he could.

When the jeep drove away via dirt road, the other PLR fighters boarded the M1114 and prepared to open fire when they left the area and used the mounted DShK to take out any Daesh fighters that were out in the open. They prioritized taking out fighters who were seen with RPG-7s or other anti-tank/armor weapons/equipment before the vehicle was lost in an attack.

The vehicles drove away from the outskirts of Mosul, abandoning their hideout a few kilometers near Mosul International Airport via Abu Saif.

It was merely a two-story mansion built by a Ba'ath Party official who made it as alternate residence for him and his family to use whenever they would take a vacation from the hectic life at Baghdad. Right now, the building was under attack and was in the process of being destroyed.

It was originally established as a covert observation post by the PLR when they secretly took out ISIL fighters assigned to it as an OP of their own to keep an eye on Iraqi/Iranian/Coalition forces if they would try to advance onto Mosul from the south.

In the meantime, it was seen as a minor setback for the anti-ISIL coalition force as they continued to do battle with them to slowly regain control of the Sunni-majority city.

The driver of the M1114 radioed back to a joint command post being used by Hezbollah and the PLR to coordinate their efforts, either by themselves or together with the Popular Mobilization Forces and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps or Sepâh for short. They were informed that their cell is the only one to survive the assault on their OP and will rendezvous back to their main base.

* * *

Now our story heads back to London, where a siege is being conducted on Heygate Estate by a mysterious group against the operations of local drug dealer Tyrone Jones and anyone else supporting him from the shadows.

Nine and Twelve are currently in trouble, mostly due from fighting Hinx in close quarters. They were victims of being given the shoulder throw treatment.

The two responded by firing their B&T MP9s at the Spectre enforcer, forcing him back and on the run when he got to the empty apartment which Moreau used to hide himself with Prentiss.

["Okay! We're on the offensive."] Twelve said when he emptied his magazine, which forced to immediately reload. Nine covered for him when he saw a BA contractor show up to open fire with his HK MP5A3. He dropped dead after the glasses-wearing teen shot him in the chest several times.

They took cover using the nearest wall corner to hide from being hit by gunfire from BA contractors protecting Moreau, hiding with Prentiss and Hinx. They got in touch with Lester, being told that Robert, Daryl and Nathan were advancing in from the other side, taking out Tyrone's men and a few BA contractors sent in to reinforce them.

_["About damn time too."]_

Twelve secured a few M67 frag grenades from the tactical vest of the dead BA contractor. He showed Nine the live grenade and pulled the pin before he hurled it towards the open door when a BA contractor was conducting suppressive fire. The explosion killed him immediately and damaged the door and parts of the entrance with shrapnel.

["Better send another one to keep their heads down."] Nine told Twelve after he had to stop firing his MP9 since it ran out of ammo.

["On it!"] Twelve shouted with enthusiasm as he chucked another live frag grenade. This forced Moreau, Prentiss and Hinx to keep their heads down until they can get help.

* * *

The blond man, or 007, was walking up another staircase leading to the upper floors of the Ashenden when he encountered four armed gangsters, all in various hoodies, pants and sneakers and were armed with Ingram MAC-10s.

_Hello there._

He was intrigued to see that the armed men were not aware of his presence just yet. With this in mind, he decided to go up the stairs slowly. When he was at arm's length, the nearest gangster was grabbed from the back.

"What the?" The others were alerted to the scuffle going on and one of them had the chance to fire his MAC-10.

"My apologies, gentlemen." The man placed the gangster to sleep by placing him in a headlock until he was out cold. The unconscious gangster was shoved in front, which startled the second gangster to fire his submachine gun. The barrage killed him instantly.

"Holy shit...!" The other two were about to raise their MAC-10s when the intruder moved in, using quick punches and kicks to knock them out one by one. For the last one though, the man gave him a beating by punching him several times until he was unconscious.

"Now then..." The agent opened the fire escape door and saw Robert, Daryl and Nathan clearing the hallway of the gangsters blocking their way by using bound and overwatch. Robert was the one to take the lead while either Daryl or Nathan stepped back to provide cover fire and vice versa by using the apartment door corners for cover. So far, things were going well for them. He saw that they had to stop and take cover in an empty apartment while getting information from their earpieces about what's happening.

Robert gestured to the other two to check their TTI TR-1 Ultra-Light carbines before proceeding. The agent had previously been told that the apartment was made off-limits by the Metropolitan Police Service to Tyrone Jones' control over the derelict estate. And if whoever's shooting up the place is hunting him down means that both parties may have strong backers who happen to be helping them from behind the scenes.

_Better wait for them to leave first. I don't know if I'll be walking into a crossfire. Besides, they could lead me to Mr. Jones._

As soon as three-man team moved further down the floor, clearing it of hostiles and getting civilians to get behind something safe, the man followed them from a few steps behind just to shadow them and see what they're going to do next.

* * *

Tyrone Jones was forced to retreat when he got a call on his Samsung smartphone. He motioned to his men to push forward and slow the intruders down while he answered the call he's getting.

 **"I'm fucking busy!"** Tyrone shouted since loud gunfire was heard in the background.

 **"Sorry about it, but we're gettin' trouble from the rear too."** The reply came from one of his men on the line. **"But them private contractors are tellin' us that they're gonna bug it outta there.."**

The drug dealer cursed bitterly. If his Spectre and Black Arrow backers are going to abandon him and his crew to the mercy of the ex-para turned vigilante and the others despite the few weeks that they have conducted paramilitary training for them to properly fight back, then that means...

 **"Screw it then!"** Tyrone is more pissed that he's being abandoned. Not to mention that an unofficial liaison from London has not been conveyed to him yet ever since the Home Secretary was assassinated. **"If we're going down, then we go down fucking fighting!"**

**"What about those guys helpin' us out?"**

**"If they're bailin' on us, then I'm considering them expendables! Send the word out..."**

* * *

After the frag grenades went off, Nine and Twelve started to check their corners for any signs of hostiles if they're standing or not.

["Looks clear."] Twelve murmured when he peeked around to see the ceiling, the walls and the floor marked with remains from shrapnel. ["Looks like our target's been quiet. Follow me."]

Nine nodded and covered Twelve's rear when the former took a good look at the first apartment door he saw, which has mostly been destroyed by the grenade blast and/or shrapnel. It was kicked down, allowing the duo entry.

"Nobody move!" Nine shouted after he came running inside the apartment, aiming the MP9 around to see if anyone was around. He signaled to Twelve to take a look around to see where the targets have gone to. ["Dammit.."]

While some shooting was going on, Twelve searched the rooms up to the common bathroom to see that no one was around. He did find a wall that was recently breached in with explosives, suggesting that they make their escape in the chaos.

["No one here."] Twelve told Nine. ["Looks like our friends in Black Arrow and Spectre made their escape."]

["Damn shame."] Nine sighed before he got an incoming transmission. ["Hold on. I'm getting something on the comms."]

["Is it from Robert?"]

["Yeah. Give me a sec."]

Nine listened in on the transmission while Twelve stood near the busted door to see if anyone was coming towards their direction.

* * *

The Spotter was in contact with Nine who, with Ilija's assistance, was able to track down the explosion that tore through Ashenden the minute he saw it through his binoculars.

 **"Ilija, can you get a better look on who did that?"** The Spotter radioed in.

 **"Ah..."** came the reply from the sniper.

 **"What's happening outside?"** The Spotter could hear Nine's voice on his comms.

**"We saw the explosion from the outside. Does it belong to the targets?"**

**"I believe so."**  The Spotter replied. **"We're checking it out..."**

Ilija came back on the line. **"I was able to get a good look at the rear. I've sighted Black Arrow and Spectre HVTs making a run for it."**

**"Are they in a vehicle?"**

**"No they..."** The Spotter and Nine heard the sniper's hesitation for a few seconds. **"they got themselves into a vehicle. It looks like they took out of one of Jone's men trying to pursue them."**

 **"That's... interesting."** Nine got the word. **"I'll make sure to inform the others."**

* * *

Twelve linked up with Robert, Daryl and Nathan, seeing the former holster an Advanced Taser M26C taser pistol on the holster attached on his right leg.

"Didn't realize that this bloody thing would come in handy." Robert said after he entered the wrecked apartment.

"So what's he talking about?" Twelve asked.

"He found an armed kid trying to shoot him from the back, so we..." Daryl began to explain. "I mean we warned him after Nathan spotted the kid trying to aim the giant pistol of his from the back."

"Yeah, yeah." Robert sighed, hoping that the hired gun could stop praising him.

Twelve took a look outside and saw a young African-British kid unconscious, placed near the wall with his back resting on it. "Least you didn't kill him."

"Apologies for the wait guys." Nine reconvened with the three men. "The spotter mentioned that the HVTs have escaped with a few surviving Black Arrow contractors."

"That puts the work back into square one." Daryl groaned in frustration.

"Word is we'll meet with the others outside Ashenden and then figure out our next move with Lester."

Lester radioed in on the guys. **"So I don't know if I wanna say good work, but did of you guys spot Tyrone Jones anywhere in that apartment building?"**

"Shit..." Nathan murmured when he heard Lester on the radio. "I think we caught a glimpse of him, but we last heard him heading off to who knows where."

"So if we didn't get the guy, then we can't get a chance to grill him on his links with Spectre." Nine kicked the nearest pile of debris, which consisted of wood from the door ripped apart by frag grenades.

"Perhaps I can help with that."

The five persons turned their attention to the door and saw Jones, who was in a headlock in front of the blond man. They aimed their weapons at him.

"Who the hell are you?" Nathan was surprised to see the blond man bring the subdued drug dealer in.

"Oh. I'm just a friendly secret agent man." The man smirked. "But you can call me Bond. James Bond."

"What's does MI6 have their involvement done with this drug dealer?" Robert kept his aim at Bond, but lowered it a bit since he brought Jones in and didn't threaten him nor the others.

"Funny story. I just happened to follow one of my leads from Italy when I caught wind of rumors that Spectre's involved as a foreign entity in the British drug trade."

"Let's say you're right... Mr. Bond." Robert replied to his answer. "Me and my buddies here need to ask him about his links..."

"...with the Home Secretary." James followed up on Robert's answer. This left Robert raising an eyebrow. "Relax. I got friends in law enforcement and in the intelligence community who started an investigation onto his activities."

"Let's start this slowly..." Nathan motioned to Robert to lower his carbine. "For now, let's grill the man and see what info he has on his links to Spectre."

"H-hey... what the hell man?!" The drug dealer squirmed while in Bond's grip.

"You're going for a little trip out of here."

The next thing Tyrone remembered was that something was used to cover his head. And his wrists were restrained.

* * *

Lester and Rickie were monitoring radio channels used by the Metropolitan Police Service and the National Crime Agency when the former got word that they've met with an ally who's willing to help them out with their problem concerning the Home Secretary being infiltrated by Spectre due to Langdon being a covert member.

"The channels are picking up, man." Rickie told Lester when he lowered his headphones to listen to chatter from the MPS. "Someone called in an explosion at the Heygate Estate."

"Damn. I'll call them in." Lester patted Rickie on the shoulder before he made the call by contacting the Spotter via burner phone. **"Hey it's me. Yeah, Rickie managed to overhear radio chatter from the MPS. Let the others know that they need to leave the estate ASAP. And if they got Jones, be sure to incapacitate him."**

 **"Understood."**  The Spotter replied before the glasses-wearing underworld information broker ended the call. 

**"And you need to evacuate too with Ilija. No way am I going to incur Bain's wrath, you hear me?"**

**"Gotcha."**

"Rickie." Lester turned to the hacker. "We need to start packing everything up. Don't leave anything behind."

Rickie nodded when he turned off his laptop and started to pack it.

"I'll go and make the necessary calls. Don't wait for me."

"Got it."

Lester made further calls to Twitch, who was outside their hotel room to prep the car once he can and to make contact with Taliana to get ready to flee the estate grounds before the MPS can show up in full force.

* * *

Some civilians in the streets near Heygate Estate saw incoming MPS squad cars and vans going in to put up roadblocks and enter the decaying estate just as a few vehicles pulled out of the area a few minutes before they came in.

No one had seemed to notice the vehicles that came out of the estate. As far as they were concerned, it was already a bad area that no one had seemed to care about it.

The MPS reported that the Cadillac Escalade ESV parked near the Ashenden was being burned. Although unknown to them, a thermite grenade was used, taken from the combat vest of a slain BA contractor.

It would take a while for them to investigate the situation since Tyrone's gang has some backers in the Home Ministry, even with Langdon already dead, trying to delay the start of the investigation as much as possible to ensure that nothing can be linked to Spectre.

* * *

When Tyrone came to, he felt that he was placed in a chair, restrained from the back with his arms behind his back on a chair and his left leg cuffed to a chair leg. His head was still covered in a black bag to ensure that his vision would be blocked.

_Where the bloody hell am I...?_

"...we still got time?"

"...been some time since we got the guy in here."

"Better do it fast."

_How long was I out?_

Tyrone struggled to get himself out of his current predicament. But the more he struggled, the more he realized that he wasn't going to get out of this one.

"Looks like our mutual friend is awake."

_That voice..._

The thing that was removed from Tyrone's head was a black hood, worn over his head. James took a good look at him and he noted that he wasn't clean shaven and tidy since he already started to grow a beard, nor did he have a neat appearance with some bruises on his face. Weeks and weeks of being held in confinement in an undisclosed location would be responsible for that. The captive was only given some water and food enough that he can survive for a few days.

Tyrone squinted, trying to get use to light again after being in a hood for a few days every time. In the meantime, it was a matter of routine for him. The African-British man saw it was some kind of warehouse, but only parts of it had working lights. And he wasn't sure if he can get out of his current problem.

James, after he came back to London, opted to go for the all-black look. Black squall bomber jacket and thermal shirt alongside dark blue jeans and brown loafers.

"Are you well, Mr. Jones?" James asked him about his condition, not attempting to hide the tone of sarcasm in his voice.

"When I get my hands on you..." Now Tyrone was desperate to get out of his restraints, even though his wrists and feet are cuffed.

"Hey, hey!"

It also didn't help that a pistol's barrel was pressed on the back on his head.

"Now that I have your attention away from business at hand, I have some question for you regarding Spectre's hand in the drug dealing business in London."

Tyrone gritted his teeth.

"Fine, have it your way."

The pistol was fired on his left leg.

"AAAAGGGGHHH!"

"Scream all you want Mr. Jones, no one will be able to help you out."

"Okay, okay!"

"Put it away." James spoke to the person behind Tyrone to holster his weapon.

"That guy.... Moreau..." Tyrone began to talk, while trying not to think about the gunshot wound on his left leg. "He mentioned to me back in Heygate that Langdon from the Home Office was the one responsible for ensuring that Spectre gets some cut from the drugs I sell on the streets."

"How much profit?" James was eager to hear what the drug dealer had to say about the organization's influence.

"A-around 5% of the profit."

"I guess that does confirm what our intel has on them."

James turned to the side and saw a masked Mukuro approach him.

"Did it now?"

"Yeah. We've been keeping tabs on them, amongst other shady groups that my partner and I have encountered on the field for a while. After all, we've been playing a game of taking them down slowly and painfully..."

James nodded when he heard the mercenary's answer.

"We need to go."

A man in his mid 50s in a black suit, blue dress shirt, a blue and white necktie and black loafers with a brown trenchcoat walked towards James. His hands were in the front pockets of the trenchcoat. The main thing noticeable about him is that he has a receding hairline.

"I thought you were busy with Q, Moneypenny and Bill, M." James greeted the head of the former MI6 agency.

"Your new friends helped expedite things a bit faster, 007." M told the spy as Tyrone's head was being covered again. "I found them to be quite effective in weeding out Spectre and Syndicate influence in London while you were in Morocco making your presence known there for the past few weeks. I'm already considering getting our friends to work for us once Spectre and the Syndicate's plans are kicked down the drain."

"So another player has come to join our little game?"

M nodded. "From what a Mr. Ethan Hunt has mentioned, they used to be an agency project before the Prime Minister pulled the plug for problems of accountability and how it can be easily hijacked by anyone who has an agenda in mind from back in the Cold War."

"I'm already guessing that it's been hijacked already..."

"Hey man! Let me go!"

Mukuro and Dagger were dragging a cuffed Tyrone out of the warehouse after they removed the cuffs from his leg and the cuffs on a chair.

"Don't worry, my friend. We'll take you to a special place that you'll really like."

Those reassuring words came from the masked mercenary himself when they brought Tyrone outside, who had some difficulty walking since he didn't have any kind of footwear on.

"Mr. Hunt and Mr. Stickell are ready, keeping Ms. Swann company." James and M were met by a man in his 30s with messy brown hair, who wore glasses, a gray fleece jacket, black shirt, jeans and black boots. "They just got back from their op on exposing the Syndicate to the Prime Minister."

"Thanks, Q. We need to talk with them and go over the plan." James thanked Q for getting him and M up to date.

"I'll go and speak with Bill and Ms. Moneypenny at once." Q left them and spoke to M's aide, who was just waiting on the side with the African-British woman.

"Although I have to say that it's a big bold for them do so by masquerading as the National Security Adviser." M said, being blunt about what he heard about Hunt's op.

"Well, the Americans have guts to do it, if I say so myself." James walked with M towards another section of the warehouse with Q leading the way. "If I may say so, I never liked Atlee in the first place."

"You're not the only one." M said. "And sooner or later, we'll all be doing something that going to be the most gutsy thing we do in the history of counter-terrorism."

James placed hand on the back of his head to see if something was there. But there wasn't any. It was most likely the sensation of having the back of his head nearly being drilled by his foster brother Blofeld.

Right now, he didn't want to think about it.

"Ms. Madeleine Swann." M spoke to the blonde-haired, French-born, Austrian-based psychologist who was seated in a wooden chair while she waited to talk to James, finishing up talking to Ethan and Luther. "Pleasure to meet you."

"Likewise." Madeleine nodded and shook hands with him.

* * *

Mukuro and Dagger brought Tyrone out of the warehouse as it was getting dark. They walked with him down on Brickfield Road towards the direction of Limehouse Cut water canal. Since it was early evening and the area has warehouses that are not in use, people weren't present there. This meant that it was easier for Mukuro and company to stage their operations, knowing that it's a place where they can do their work without being alerted by the public.

This meant that that the warehouse needed to have equipment ready to be used as a makeshift command post. Thanks to Lester and Bain, the latter working from behind the scenes, they were able to help secure some of the equipment, either small arms, ammo or vehicles with bogus license plates and registrations because they can't count on the JIS since it's secretly a Spectre puppet.

"This is the end for you, Tyrone Jones." Dagger told the drug dealer calmly and honestly as the man stood near the edges of the empty parking lot facing the canal. They were able to enter by picking the lock used to lock up the chain link fence.

Tyrone tried to yell and get away, but he couldn't do it since his mouth was covered with something and his wrists was cuffed behind his back.

"No use trying to get away..."

Mukuro grabbed him from behind and placed his head in a headlock after she got him to kneel down with both of his knees on the ground. She drew out his Glock 81 knife and used it to cut his throat.

Dagger looked around to make sure no one was present or looking at his direction when Mukuro took care of Tyrone. After the deed was done, the two mercenaries disposed of his corpse by immediately shoving it to the canal so that they don't have to clean up a lot of wet blood on the lot.

Mukuro immediately sheathed her knife before they walked back out and locked the fence again to cover up their presence.

"We need to head back." Dagger told Mukuro after the former locked up the fence. "Way things are set... We may need to split up and take on both groups at the same time."

"True, but we'll need more manpower."

The two of them saw an incoming 2016 Peugeot Expert Panel Medium van in a Nimbus Grey finish. It parked next to the curb adjacent to the curb in front of the warehouse where their allies have currently set up their temp HQ. The sliding doors opened up to reveal some familiar faces with a few unfamiliar in the mix, including a [green-haired Caucasian woman](http://rainbowsix.wikia.com/wiki/Ela), an [Asian-American woman](http://missionimpossible.wikia.com/wiki/Zhen_Lei) and a [brown-haired Caucasian man](http://missionimpossible.wikia.com/wiki/Declan_Gormley) with a clean-shaven face.

"So you were saying?"

The female mercenary simply rolled her eyes in frustration. "Whatever."

The two were greeted by Lester, who told them that everyone has shown up for the briefing session.

* * *

Dagger and Mukuro carefully observed who's who in the meeting of people from all around the world who are present in London to take on a major operation against Spectre and the Syndicate in a joint mission... of sorts.

Lester took the lead in addressing the assembled group when they were gathered around a long table to check a world map placed on top of it. He started to brief everyone by explaining how the rogue Impossible Mission Force agents led by Ethan with ex-MI6 agent Ilsa Faust and James Bond nearly intersected with each other in Austria and Morocco, foiling Spectre and Syndicate operations in both countries.

This was eventually followed by their respective treks back to the UK. Tracing the route made everyone wonder if this was a coincidence or if their leaders made it this way so that in case one of them had trouble, they can summon for assistance from the other.

It was thanks to Lester, with Bain's assistance, when he set himself up as the contact after James suggested to the rogue IMF agents that they should come and see him. The rogue agents included Ethan Hunt, Luther Stickwell and William Brandt.

"From what both Ethan and Luther have told me, with additional information from Mr. M here..." Lester started the briefing when he showed M standing nearby to remind them that he had some information to share. "it seems that our enemies have decided to reinforce their position here after Mr. Dunn was abducted by Syndicate agents."

Lester pointed to the Thames, specifically the riverbank.

"If I recall correctly," Q spoke up to give more details. "that area has a cafe on the side. Mostly serves coffee and small bites."

Two men, one Caucasian and the other African-American, were toiling away at a laptop checking some data nearby when the latter patted the former on the shoulder, hearing that the briefing stopped for a bit. "Ethan... you're up. Tell them the details."

"Right, Luther." Ethan replied. "Everyone. I'll going with Ilsa while I'm going to meet up with Solomon Lane to formally make the exchange with him in return for my colleague."

"I'd say that's mad..." Dagger heard his plans. "but I'm going to assume that you got something else in mind?"

"Yeah, I do."

"In the meantime," M spoke next. "My aide Bill Tanner should fill in on our battle plan."

"Thank you sir." Bill pointed to a certain part of Spring Gardens. "Some of us will start here and make our way to a hidden entrance located near the Thames. MI6 has a safe house that we can access prior to the establishment of the JIS."

"Anyone has a key or something to get there?" Robert asked Bill after he got a good look at the location of Spring Gardens on the map for himself.

"I'll take care of that." M told him. "I know the details on that safehouse."

"So are we going to divide our forces?" Mukuro asked the veteran SAS operator.

"That..." Lester tapped the location of the Thames on the map with his left index finger. "should be easy to handle." He counted how many people are present, except for Rickie since he's designated for tech stuff with him. All in all, it was more or less 29 people present who can fight when the situation calls for it.

If he got his counting wrong, who cares?

"We should get ourselves into two teams. And since I'm counting twenty-four in total, except for Rickie who's going to stay with me." Lester said before he faced Rickie, who was helping Luther with the USB flash drive to see if any additional data was inside, cloning the data to another flash drive without the veteran IMF agent knowing about it.

"And Twitch, since we'll need a driver to help us get out of here in case the situation goes FUBAR."

Rickie informed Luther that he already finished analysis of the flash drive and handed the original one back to him.

When Dagger approached him, Rickie handed him the other flash drive without hesitation. He also told the mercenary that it contained data taken from the Syndicate.

Twitch acknowledged himself by nodding. The others would be able to physically recognize him since he's wearing shades (which some peeps got to ask themselves why wear shades at night, even if it's just to hide his eyes from the public), his trimmed beard and a ponytail while he wore leather gloves, a dark blue suit, white dress shirt, light blue necktie and black loafers.

"Half of you guys will need to go with M to Spring Gardens and use their safehouse as a staging ground." Lester marked Spring Gardens with a red circle. "I'll let M take over from there."

The glasses-wearing man sighed and marked the Thames somewhere near the bridge with a red square. "The others will act as backup to Mr. Hunt while he goes to make the exchange."

"And the drivers?" Karl asked Lester before he stretched his arms.

"I'll let Karim and Taliana decide on that matter." Lester replied before he introduced the brown-haired man. "I recruited Declan Gormley thanks to a recommendation from Dagger. He'll be on standby with a chopper for transportation purposes. Twitch'll stay with us as usual and the Spotter will join you guys on the field."

Declan nodded to acknowledge himself. "I'll be on standby after you guys are deployed for the op. My callsign is _Phoenix_."

"So is the Spotter going to be armed?" Twelve asked Lester.

"No worries." The Spotter said, who was just staying quiet to listen to the briefing. "I've been told that I'll be meeting with some people once I'm out there."

"Yeah, Karl'll go with him." Lester addressed the teen's concern.

"Don't worry." Karl reassured Twelve. "I'll protect him like he's my own flesh and blood."

"For those in the IMF, you may recognize a familiar face." Dagger motioned to the Asian-American woman standing near him.

"Zhen..." Ethan greeted her.

"Good to see a familiar face." Luther smiled and nodded.

"Yeah. Greet to see you guys again."

"One more thing. We got additional manpower right now. One of the newbies we got is straight from Poland. Allow me to introduce you guys to Elżbieta "Ela" Bosak."

Ela nodded. "Please. Call me Ela."

Everyone else nodded at her request.

"Rickie and I will keep in touch with you guys." Lester mentioned that detail after Declan was finished. "We'll check in with comms to hear what the Metropolitan Police and other law enforcement agencies are up to."

"Understood." Dagger said when he looked over the map of London and took note of the positions mentioned. "Are the comms safe?"

"We worked with them for the past few days now. Should be fully proofed against electronic eavesdropping unless someone gets the drop on us."

"Guess the only thing we need to go is to move out."

The group began to divide themselves according to the manpower and priorities they need once they're in the Greater London Area.

Two teams were being drawn up. One would work alongside the defunct MI6 team and head to an unused safehouse, which would be used as the initial staging point. The other would work with the rogue IMF agents to secure one of their own from Lane's group and extract said person.

Depending on how the teams are drawn up, the others may most likely stay behind as backup and as such, will be deployed by Declan just in case. Lester has not said anything on having Twitch out in the field.

The first team going with the MI6 group consisted of Dagger, Mukuro, Robert, Ela and Ilija with Taliana as the driver. The other team going with the rogue IMF agents consisted of Zhen, Karl, Nathan, Nine and Twelve with Karim as the driver. The plans call for them to be deployed simultaneously in order to tackle both factions and take them out of the picture before it's too late.

"All right! Time to go!" M shouted as the groups went for the vans parked inside the warehouse, already donned with their plate carrier (or vests for the snipers) with leg holsters strapped on either their left or right legs. Lester went to work with Rickie on checking and monitoring their radio channels to see if they're working and whether anyone was trying to conduct electronic surveillance on them.

Rickie gave the thumbs to Lester when he wore his headset on, listening on MPS channels while working on his Macbook Pro laptop.

The MI6 team got on board the 2016 Toyota ProAce Panel Medium van with a Falcon Grey finish while the IMF team got on board the same Peugeot Expert van parked outside.

The two vans began to drive towards the direction of London when the sun was about to set, but they would split up as they make their approach towards the Tower of London after Lane made arrangements for Ethan to meet up with him at a terrace cafe at the riverside area of the River Thames. At the same time, a Bell Huey II painted in black took off from the warehouse's empty parking lot with the Spotter and Karl inside the cabin while Declan was at the controls.

Swann was ordered to stay behind by Lester due to the risk of being captured by either Spectre or Syndicate agents and they can't afford to spare any more manpower at the moment since the op needs to be done as fast as possible that Twitch volunteered to look after her while Lester and Rickie went to work.

* * *

**"How are things?"**

**"Making progress as it seems..."**

**"I sense hesitation in your voice."**

**"Well, we are running into much trouble than anticipated."**

**"Do you mean more than those agents formerly from the IMF and MI6?"**

**"Yes."**

**"I see..."**

**"Your orders?"**

**"We continue with the usual. But be sure that you're in contact with them at once."**

**"Understood."**

**"Keep in contact as usual."**

**"Will do."**

* * *

The panel vans were on schedule as they drove towards the direction of the Tower of London. The minute the vans passed it, the drivers were in contact with each other and radioed back that they're proceeding to split up.

The Toyota ProAce would make the journey to the Spring Gardens, depositing the team there where the MI6 allies would guide them there. The Peugeot Expert got to their destination to get Ilsa and Ethan off after Luther and William disembarked from the van to head to another staging area in the Thames area. The second team would stay in the van for the meantime.

 **"Show time guys."** Karim radioed in after he parked the Expert next to the sidewalk.

 **"Same here."** Taliana replied after she drove away from Spring Gardens.

 **"Good luck guys."** Lester came on the line. **"I'll be checking in with updates and whatnot when the op starts."**

* * *

Declan's Huey II was seen flying over the River Thames, which took off around ten minutes after the vans left their Brickfield Road staging area. The Spotter was in contact with the two vans via radio with Karl keeping a close eye on the outside to maintain security on the chopper.

 **"Listen up guys..."** Declan was talking to his passengers via headset mike since the rotors were making noises that it's very much needed. **"I'll be making the approach on Point Alpha."**

The Spotter and Karl unfolded the map of London and looked for the mark POINT ALPHA on it.

 **"Right here?"** Karl saw that the PA location was positioned between the London and Tower bridges.

 **"Yeah, that's right."** Declan replied after he began to make the approach.

**"But we're going to look suspicious."**

**"Hold on..."**  Declan said when he got an incoming radio transmission. **"I'm getting something..."**

 **"Baseplate to Phoenix. Baseplate to Phoenix. How's the situation there, over?"** Declan had received a transmission from Lester, who was operating under the codename _Baseplate_.

The ex-Irish IMF agent replied. **"Phoenix here. Looks like London's going to be not normal if the exchange that Ethan's doing is about to end in a hail of gunfire."**

There was some silence on the line before Lester gave a reply. **"Understood. Just be ready to move in."**

**"Gotcha."**

The Huey II continued on its journey towards the River Thames as the Spotter was in contact with the teams on the ground.

* * *

The Toyota ProAce Panel van arrived outside a certain building in Spring Gardens, which had a gray folding gate to seal the front door. Taliana was instructed to park the van immediately as Bill led the others to the front of the building after he removed the padlock on the folding metal gate. M explained to the teams that the place there going to go into is a MI6 safehouse that hasn't been commissioned in recent years, especially since the agency was forced to disband in the wake of its HQ being gutted in a bomb attack.

"Never knew that MI6 would have a safehouse like this." Ela was a bit surprised at the choice of safehouse in the area. She realized that the building seemed very old and wondered if they're suppose to hold their position here for the meantime.

"That's the entire point." M told the Polish mercenary. "You blend in so that no one else suspects it to be an intelligence agency's safehouse."

"We better move then." James told the others. "Before we start to attract too much attention."

"Better take off for now, Taliana." Mukuro told the getaway driver. "We'll let you know if we need a quick getaway."

"Gotcha." Taliana gave her the thumbs up.

The van drove off as M and Bill led the others inside the safehouse. James and Moneypenny were the last ones to get in so that they can keep an eye on the street for any suspicious characters lurking about.

The MI6 team went inside the safehouse. M tossed to James the padlock after Moneypenny closed the folding gate. She had to work her hands on the gate to get the padlock lock it since there wasn't enough room for her to get her hands to move around. The front door was closed and locked.

"Follow me." M told the others. "The rear side of the building should lead us to an area of the Thames where we can go the river canal."

"Where does this this go to?" Dagger asked M when he pointed out the staircase that leads upstairs.

"The roof. We'll need to take a good look first."

When M showed the way to the roof, Dagger and Mukuro went to work in conducting recon on the downtown area and on the River Thames, if only to see if they can spot Ethan conducting the exchange and the Huey II Declan was piloting.

"Looks like things are quiet." Dagger said when he took out his binoculars to observe the River Thames.

"Can you get an eye at the riverside cafe?" Mukuro asked him when she was checking out the city streets.

"Give me a second."

Dagger focused his sights on the Thames' shore to look for any establishments. In particular, crowded cafes or restaurants that would be used for an overt meeting spot.

_Where are they?_

"Think I got something." Dagger told his partner.

"Where?" Mukuro focused her attention on the Thames after she got word from him.

"There's a cafe on the shore where Ethan is in front of the Tower of London."

"Okay." The Japanese mercenary found the cafe. She focused her attention on Benji, Ethan and Ilsa with some nasty-looking men loitering nearby. _Must be armed men sent by The Syndicate as an insurance policy in case the negotiations don't go well in their favor._

"How is it?" Moneypenny asked the two. James and M were talking about the situation with Spectre, with a report from James that the supposed leader of the organization, Ernst Stavro Blofeld, was killed in action during an operation in Morocco.

"I think..." Dagger saw that Ethan and Ilsa were now armed and were in a shootout with the nasty men firing their pistols at them with Benji now free from the strapped IED vest that was planted on him. "That part of London is under fire."

"We need to move." M said to him. "They should keep Syndicate forces from helping out any Spectre agents in the UK."

Dagger and Mukuro stored their binoculars and went down from the roof. They linked up with Robert, Ela and Ilija, the three of them waiting while they checked on their weapons to make sure that they were loaded and ready to go.

"Situation?" Ilija asked Dagger.

"We need to move." Dagger pointed to the direction of the Thames. "Ethan was able to get his colleagues freed, but there's a shootout in the Thames area."

"We got vehicles to use?" Robert asked the next sensible question.

"Not sure..."

"They're outside." Ben told the ex-paratrooper. "We got the keys ready."

* * *

The Huey II flew over the Thames by the direction of the Tower of London after Lester gave an update that there's a shootout starting there. In addition, they got reports that the MPS was now deploying armed police officers to the scene.

 **"We'll need to move, guys."** Declan piloted the helicopter to fly near the tower, but to some place where he can land the Spotter and Karl without any trouble from the police or any fleeing civilians. **"The party's already starting on the ground."**

 **"Alright brotha..."** Karl started a brass checked on his TR-1 Ultra-Light carbine after he took off his headset.

The Spotter did the same while he checked what's going on outside from the door window. He was given another Ultra-Light carbine, on the insistence of both Declan and Karl for his own protection in case they're forced to be separated during the op.

 **"Get ready!"** Declan was now getting the chopper going on an eastward direction towards London Bridge. **"Zhen's heading towards that direction with Nathan, Nine and Twelve to reinforce Ethan and Ilsa before they get screwed over."**

The Huey II's cabin door opened up after it landed on the intersection of Upper Thames Street and Angel Lane, where they saw people panicking and fleeing from the streets. Karl and the Spotter could hear a lot of gunfire and it was very loud, which meant that trouble was just around the corner. They could hear the sounds of a grenade exploding.

"We better move, brotha!" Karl told the Spotter when they started to run towards the sidewalk. "The team's in trouble now!"

"I'm not your brother!" The Spotter shouted after he rolled his eyes.

The chopper took off as the duo took cover behind a deserted 2014 Nissan NV200 British Gas van as the gunfire continued to intensify.

"Cover me." The Spotter spoke to Karl when he peeked from cover. "I'll need a closer look to analyze the situation."

Karl nodded and gripped his Ultra-Light carbine as the Spotter crawled towards another abandoned vehicle, which was a black London Taxi TX4 cab.

The gunman kept his guard up, protecting the Spotter, until a Metallic Black Nissan NV200 Combi Van was spotted at the intersection of Upper Thames Street and Arthur Street. Armed men were seen getting out of it and running down towards the direction of Lower Thames Street. They were sporting various jackets, gloves, pants and boots.

 **"Hey..."** Lester came in on the radio to make contact with Karl and The Spotter. **"Phoenix gave us some updates. He saw a black van with armed men in an intersection just a few kilometers near you. Have you spotted it?"**

The Spotter replied to him. **"Yeah. They're heading down Lower Thames Street. I'm assuming that Ethan and the other rogue agents are located somewhere there."**

 **"That's right."**  The Spotter signaled to Karl to come to his position after gunfire rang out again.  **"I was told that they got a plan to lure out the Syndicate leader out of hiding, so they're going to linger there to reduce some of the manpower in the hopes of getting their man."**

 **"Do we engage them?"** Karl asked Lester.

**"Please do."**

**"Understood."**

"Let's sneak up on them." The Spotter advised the African-American man. "We need to give the other guys the advantage."

"Understood." Karl ran down the street, crouching to give himself a low profile. The Spotter did the same thing until they were on Lower Thames Street.

The armed men opened fire with their submachine guns and/or assault rifles, using various vehicles that were left behind for cover. Karl got an update on the radio that Ethan and Ilsa were being pinned down after Zhen helped Benji get away from the Thames.

The Spotter took on the observer role very quickly, providing Karl some updates on what's happening in Lower Thames. "Zhen's in the area with the other guys."

"How's the rogue IMF guy?" Karl leaned his back on a 2016 Polar White Mercedes-Benz C-Class W205 SE sedan.

"Our gal covered him and she's holding them off quite well."

"Time to do this."

Karl shouldered his Ultra-Light carbine and aimed the EOTech Holographic Hybrid Sight I EXPS3-4. He subsequently positioned the mounted G33.STS Magnifier behind the Hybrid Sight to get a good look at the armed men firing on Zhen's position in Lower Thames.

A burst of gunfire rang out from Karl's carbine, hitting at least one of the armed men engaging Zhen from the back. He went down on his knees and collapsed onto the street, back first.

"Shit! We're under attack!" Some of the armed men were now force to fight on two fronts. It was perfect for Karl, having the opportunity to distract them while the other side would pounce on them hard.

* * *

M led the other team on the rear side of the Spring Gardens safehouse, getting their three 2015 Scotia Grey Metallic Land Rover Discovery 4 L319 SUVs. James and M took the first SUV while M, Bill and Moneypenny took the second one. Dagger and his team took the third SUV.

Their plan was to drive towards the direction of the abandoned MI6 building using various side streets to avoid being easily detected by Spectre agents. On their way there, the occupants could hear a lot of sirens. They saw some BMW X5 SUVs with MPS markings heading towards the direction of the Thames, belonging to the MPS' Specialist Crime & Operations 19. According to Q, he listened in on the MPS frequencies while using his laptop to hack in and got reports of gunfire at some cafe in the area from the general vicinity of the Tower of London.

The convoy traveled to the direction of the Ritz London, using side streets if possible to avoid being caught out in the open. So far, it seemed to be going well. Everyone involved got constant radio updates from Lester on what was happening in Lower Thames.

The journey seemed to be going well when the convoy made a turn towards the intersection of King Street and Saint James' Square the second time as part of its plan to avoid a potential tail before it drove down the street towards Bury Street.

All of a sudden, an ambush was initiated almost immediately when a 2015 International 4700 armored truck in a black finish drove hard on from the direction of Angel Court. The attack worked since it immediately disabled the first Discovery 4. 

"AMBUSH! AMBUSH!" Bill shouted when he pressed the brakes hard. Dagger did the same likewise. 

After the armored truck made its appearance, Robert turned around to see two 2016 Nightfall Mica Lexus RX 450h SE SUVs blocking the rear. "We're getting boxed in!"

Mukuro saw four men breaking into the smashed SUV just to get an unconscious James out. They were armed with Heckler & Koch MP5K-PDWs.

Bill and Moneypenny got out and opened fire on the armed men taking James to the armored truck. Two of them were shot dead, but the gunfire from the PDWs forced them to keep their heads down as they got the ex-MI6 agent to the truck. This part was true for Q since he kept his head down throughout the entire incident and hugged the laptop on his chest so that it doesn't get damaged.

"CONTACT!" Nathan shouted when armed men got out of the two RX 450hs and aimed their Heckler & Koch 416 D14.5 RS carbines equipped with vertical foregrips and red dot scopes on the upper receiver.

Dagger directed Mukuro, Robert and Ela to engage them at once. Ilija got his suppressed PGM 338 sniper rifle ready. He got prone and used the parked vehicles next to the sidewalk for cover as he used the Zeiss Conquest V6 1-6x24 riflescope. Gunfire was heard all around him as bullets flew over his head.

The sniper remained calm and concentrated on getting a bead on his target. In the meantime, he calmly focused his scope until he got one hostile within his sight.

"One down..." Ilija calmly said after he took out an armed man firing on the third Discovery 4. He calmly worked the bolt to extract the used .338 LM casing and load a new one into the chamber.

From both sides of the River Thames, gunfire continued to linger on. And tonight, the MPS would deploy more SCO19 units with additional reinforcements coming from Counter Terrorist Specialist Firearms Officers.

Chapter 3 END

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> PS - You'll notice that I'm using ISIL and Daesh in naming Islamic State. ISIL is when the chapter is being narrated and Daesh is ISIL's name in Arabic.
> 
> You should notice that I made some changes to make things fit since the London arc is mostly a mix of Spectre and MI: Rogue Nation. Anyway, this arc should be done (hopefully) by the next chapter.

**Author's Note:**

> PS - Hope you guys enjoy this conspiracy thriller crossover story. I've actually been planning this for a while now as a wham bam kind of thing as I wind down my Martin Mystery/Resident Evil/Spriggan fanfic verse and as a test on handling canon welding and character interconnections like in the Super Robot War series where characters from various super/real robot series/franchises have their stories combined together. I chose the title based on the idea that the good guys will stumble onto the bad guys backing the various conspiracies in the story.
> 
> Hopefully I can get series/franchises from anime (manga), live-action TV shows/movies, video games, books, etc. I'll probably even take some story elements/characters here and there once in a while, but don't count on it to be used all the time.
> 
> Do note that the Heygate Estate was torn down between 2011 and 2014, which was used to shoot the urban combat scenes in the last part of The Veteran. In the fic, I gave it more time so that it can exist in the fic via 2016 due to some of the plot's backstory in this chapter needed to set in the year. If I made a mistake with something regarding the estate (e.g. streets around it or anything specific with the estate), let me know.
> 
> Also, GTA V's gonna be referenced a bit here. But I'm using LA instead of Los Santos, but the in-game locations will most likely take the places of their real-life counterparts at least 90% of the time.
> 
> Let me know if the planning scenes are done well. -_-''
> 
> Let me know how the story is and if there's a problem with the chapter (punctuation, grammar, story flow/continuity), let me know and I'll get on it. Also, give me some feedback on the title. Had a hard time on figuring out since the story will feature one conspiracy to conspiracy, sometimes the bad guys behind it will probably face off against another faction for getting in the way, depending on whether it's done by accident or not. Thanks and a good day/night, wherever you're reading this chapter from.
> 
> When the story gets updated on AO3, I'll update the tags in terms of which series/franchise has both character/elements/story plot involved in. If it's only one of them, I most likely won't get a tag in unless I'm persuaded to do so.
> 
> My apologies to you all. Can't get a decent map of Heygate Estate. Close one I got is from Alamy, but their watermarks are in the way. For now, you can use that to be your map reference.


End file.
